DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AMP Robotics Corp. (“AMP”), a pioneer in artificial intelligence and robotics for the recycling industry, today announced that it has raised $16 million in Series A funding, led by Sequoia Capital with participation from previous investors. AMP will use this latest funding to further scale operations and develop new AI products that help improve the economics of recycling. As part of the investment, Shaun Maguire of Sequoia will join AMP’s board of directors.
“We are excited to partner with AMP because their technology is changing the economics of the recycling industry,” said Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia. “Over the last few years, the industry has had their margins squeezed by labor shortages and low commodity prices. The end result is an industry proactively searching for cost-saving alternatives and added opportunities to increase revenue by capturing more high-value recyclables, and AMP is emerging as the leading solution.”
To address these challenges, AMP commercialized the AMP Cortex™ high-speed robotics system that precisely automates the identification and automated sorting of municipal waste, e-waste, and construction and demolition debris. AMP’s robots consistently pick twice as fast as humanly possible and with much greater accuracy. The AMP Neuron™ AI platform guides the robots to perform sorting tasks, applying computer vision and machine learning to recognize different colors, textures, shapes, sizes, patterns and brands to identify material characteristics. The AI platform transforms millions of images into data, digitizing the material stream, capturing data on what goes in and out, so informed decisions can be made about operations and performance.
“Our new partners at Sequoia have a history of building category defining businesses, and we are deeply excited to be executing on this vision with their experience, along with our existing world-class consortium of investors,” said Matanya Horowitz, founder and chief executive officer at AMP. “We are perfectly positioned to expand the scope of our technology and the geographies where we do business, furthering our mission to change the fundamental economics of recycling and help make the circular economy possible.”
The addition of Sequoia creates a world class consortium of investors, including BV, Closed Loop Partners, Congruent Ventures, and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (“SIP”), a new technology-enabled infrastructure company that spun out of Sidewalk Labs, one of the largest seed investors in AMP Robotics, and is backed by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
"Our team is proud to have backed AMP since its very earliest stages in the seed round through Sidewalk Labs, and we are thrilled to make AMP Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners’ first investment, and to help AMP scale rapidly, because we believe that their proprietary technology will fundamentally transform the infrastructure of recycling to make it both more economic and more sustainable,” said Mike Delucia, the principal at SIP who led the investment in AMP for both SIP and Sidewalk Labs.
Last month, AMP completed the install of fourteen AI-guided robots at Single Stream Recyclers in Florida, the single largest global deployment in the recycling industry. The robots are installed on a number of different sorting lines throughout the facility, processing plastics, cartons, fiber, metals and other materials. In addition to Florida, AMP has installations at numerous facilities across the US, including California, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, with many more installations upcoming.
“We believe that AMP’s artificial intelligence and robotics technology are poised to solve many of the central challenges of recycling, not only in the United States, but around the world,” said Abe Yokell, AMP Board member and Managing Partner at Congruent Ventures. “The opportunity for modernization is high as the demand for recycled materials continues to climb from consumers and the growing circular economy.”
About AMP Robotics Corp.
AMP Robotics™ is transforming the economics of recycling using guided robotics. The company’s high-speed robotics system, AMP Cortex™, precisely automates the identification, sorting and processing of material streams to extract maximum value for businesses that recycle municipal solid waste, e-waste, and construction and demolition materials. The AMP Neuron™ AI platform operates AMP Cortex using advanced computer vision and machine learning to continuously train itself by processing millions of material images and adapting to changes in a facility’s material stream. The AMP Insights™ web-based data management system digitizes the material stream, providing insights and important alerts to operators so they can optimize their business even further. Learn more at www.amprobotics.com.
About Sequoia
Sequoia helps daring founders build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. We spur founders to push the boundaries of what’s possible. In partnering with Sequoia, companies benefit from 47 years of tribal knowledge from working with founders like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Jan Koum, Brian Chesky, Drew Houston, Adi Tatarko, Julia Hartz and Jack Dorsey. In aggregate, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 20% of NASDAQ's total value. From the beginning, the vast majority of money we invest has been on behalf of non-profits and schools like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT, which means founders’ accomplishments make a meaningful difference.
About Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP)
SIP is a company pioneering technology-enabled infrastructure to transform urban life and create long-term value. SIP owns, acquires and invests both in infrastructure projects and in technology development companies applying their technology to infrastructure, across five verticals: mobility, energy, water & waste, digital, and social infrastructure.
About Congruent Ventures
Congruent Ventures is a leading early stage venture firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs to build companies addressing sustainability challenges across four themes: Mobility and Urbanization, Energy Transition, Food and Agriculture, and Sustainable Production and Consumption. With over 25 companies in the portfolio, Congruent is amongst the most active investors in the sustainability ecosystem.
