Colorado-based waste and recycling tech innovator, AMP Robotics, has grabbed $91 million in corporate equity funding through a Series D round. It was led by Congruent Ventures (which invested in Muon Space and Meati Foods), with additional participation from prominent investors such as Sequoia Capital (which backed Fireworks AI and Roon), XN, Blue Earth Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments, CalSTRS, Wellington Management, Range Ventures, and Tao Capital Partners.
Funds utilisation
AMP Robotics will use the investment to accelerate the deployment of its AMP ONE systems. With over 400 AI systems deployed across North America, Asia, and Europe, the company is scaling its operations globally to meet the rising demand for sustainable waste management solutions. The funding will also enable AMP to enhance its presence in key international markets.
Besides this, AMP recently appointed Tim Stuart, the former COO of Republic Services, as its new president.
How it overcomes recycling headwinds
The global recycling industry faces challenges on multiple fronts. In 2017, China and other international importers of recyclables enacted stricter requirements on the purity of materials destined for recycling. COVID-19 exacerbated these challenges, forcing many businesses to suspend operations due to concerns for worker safety. At the same time, the pandemic increased demand for high-quality recycled feedstock to overcome supply chain interruptions and shifts in raw material availability.
AMP’s intelligent automation offers a path for the industry to overcome these challenges by modernising America’s recycling infrastructure.
Transforms recycling with AMP ONE
The AMP ONE is an advanced AI-powered automation platform that cost-effectively sorts various material streams, including municipal solid waste (MSW). This innovation captures billions of dollars’ worth of material value that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators.
A noteworthy example is the AMP ONE system deployed in Portsmouth, Virginia, a pioneering facility demonstrating the scalability and efficiency of AMP’s solutions. The company’s AI technology identifies recyclables in real-time, recognising patterns in colours, textures, shapes, and even logos. This enables the recovery of materials once deemed unrecoverable, unlocking new avenues for resource recovery.
Last month, AMP entered a strategic partnership with Waste Connections Inc., equipping and operating one of its single-stream recycling facilities in Colorado. Such collaborations signal AMP’s rising influence in modernising the global recycling ecosystem.
AI and robotics: A breakthrough in sortation
AMP Robotics was founded by Matanya Horowitz in 2014. Horowitz, a robotics and AI expert, envisioned a way to modernise the recycling industry by leveraging AI and automation. His innovative approach has positioned AMP Robotics as a notable player in AI-powered waste sortation and recycling technologies.
AMP’s AI platform is trained on a vast database of material images and represents the forefront of deep learning applications in recycling. To date, the platform has identified 150 billion items and facilitated the sortation of over 2.5 million tonnes of recyclables. This solution is claimed to minimise manual sorting, enhance operational reliability, and provide pervasive data insights to recycling facilities worldwide.
Initially, AMP introduced a series of sorting robots, seamlessly retrofitting existing recycling setups. The company has since expanded into pioneering next-generation recycling facilities. These state-of-the-art hubs offer near-zero manual sorting and achieve exceptional efficiency, making them pivotal for tackling the challenges of MSW sorting.
What holds for the future?
AMP Robotics is setting new benchmarks in the recycling industry by integrating AI into waste sortation. Its systems reduce labour costs, increase resource recovery, and provide unparalleled operational reliability. As the global recycling infrastructure faces mounting pressure to improve efficiency and sustainability, AMP’s transformative technology is reshaping the fundamental economics of waste management.
With this latest round of funding and an expanded global footprint, AMP Robotics is poised to drive significant change in the recycling sector, paving the way for a cleaner, more resource-efficient future.
Abe Yokell, co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures, said, “AMP’s AI sortation systems enable consumers to recycle both with and without curbside separation and communities to benefit from the recovery of recycled commodities while reducing dependence on landfills. AMP is an example of the real-world impacts of AI; solutions like AMP’s will divert billions of tons of recyclable material from landfills while reducing emissions.”
“Recycling rates have stagnated in the United States, despite the positive benefits recycling offers local economies and the environment,” said Matanya Horowitz, founder of AMP. “This latest investment enables us to tackle larger projects and deliver real outcomes for waste companies and municipalities – by lowering sortation costs, capturing more material value, diverting organic waste, and extending landfill life – all while helping the industry optimize its strategic assets.”
Tim Stuart, chief executive officer for AMP, added, “AMP provides meaningfully lower-cost, higher-performance systems to recover commodities and increase landfill diversion, and we’re uniquely positioned to reshape the waste and recycling landscape at a critical time. We’re grateful to our longstanding and newest investors for their support in helping us chart a new path for sustainable materials management and resource efficiency.”
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