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AMP Robotics, a Denver, Colorado-based startup that makes robotic systems that can automatically sort recyclables, announced that it has extended its Series C round to $99 million with investment from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund. That’s up from $91 million when the round closed in November.
The extended Series C was led by investors including Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management (co-led), Blue Earth Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, Tao Capital Partners, XN, Sequoia Capital, GV, Range Ventures and Valor Equity Partners. AMP’s total reached $178 million.
“Capital is helping us grow our operations, retooling existing recycling infrastructure and expanding new infrastructure based on AI-powered automation applications,” founder and CEO Matanya Horowitz told TechCrunch in an email.
Horowitz founded AMP in 2014 after earning his PhD from Caltech. While pursuing his Ph.D., he said, he saw how powerful computer vision was becoming and began exploring different areas where the technology would be most useful — including recycling.
“After visiting recycling facilities and seeing not only how difficult the conditions are, but how challenging the work environment is, I realized this industry is a compelling opportunity for robotics,” Horowitz said. “The convergence of machine learning and robotics offers compelling opportunities to automate labor-intensive, costly, inconsistent and limited tasks.”
Sorting machine from AMP Robotics. Image Credits: AMP Robotics
It is profitable. The recycling industry contributes nearly $117 billion to the U.S. economy, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, and the industry processes 130 million metric tons of goods annually.
Horowitz asserts that littered plastics represent a significant cost to the U.S. economy — an average of $7.2 billion in 2019, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). In the year Of the 44 million metric tons of plastic waste handled in the country in 2019, approximately 86 percent was landfilled, 9 percent was incinerated and 5 percent was recycled, according to the DOE.
The recovery of U.S. plastic packaging and food service plastic alone could represent $2 billion to $4 billion in annual revenue, Horowitz estimates.
AMP’s primary customers are recycling facilities that use the startup’s flagship product, AMP Cortex, a robotic sorting system, to sort, pick up and recycle plastics, cardboard, paper, cans, cardboard and other types of containers and packaging. AMP Cortex can perform 80 to 120 selections per minute and remains accurate where it differs.
Recently, AMP, which employs about 200 people, introduced a solution called AMP Cortex-C with integrated, independent supply of waste management companies. Horowitz said the company’s fleet of approximately 275 robotics is currently deployed in more than 100 centers, including several customers owned by Waste Connections, and the AMP AI platform has identified more than 75 billion objects to date.
“Our broad portfolio of products directly addresses the core challenges of utilities, and we’ll have another exciting technology coming soon,” added Horowitz. From opportunities in Europe and around the world to larger fleets, we have a wide range of deployment opportunities. Robots and deployment of fully automated sorting facilities. The capital will help us build the technologies and team to support these opportunities.
On top of that, AMP plans to grow its secondary business in the U.S. at its three production facilities in the Denver, Atlanta and Cleveland metro areas. In addition to providing robotics infrastructure and software to customers, AMP resells recyclables such as chemicals and polymer blends to end-market buyers.
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