Amp Robotics builds AI-powered robotic sorting systems that use cameras and robotic arms to identify and pluck recyclables from conveyor belts. The company shifted its business model from placing robots in existing plants to running entire sorting facilities as a service. Amp handles operations, maintenance, and upgrades while contracting partners handle waste sourcing, offtake of valuable materials, and disposal of non-recyclables. The company charges customers per ton of waste sorted. The decade-old company has deployed around 400 robots and operates three facilities with another in the works. Amp recently raised $91M in a Series D, a round that was slightly smaller than its prior Series C, which raised $104M per SEC filings, highlighting fundraising headwinds for mid- to late-stage startups. AMP Robotics develops AI-powered robotic sorting systems (its flagship product is AMP Cortex) to pick and reclaim plastics, cardboard, paper, cans, cartons and other packaging types. The company says Cortex can perform 80 to 120 picks per minute and its AI platform has identified over 75 billion objects to date. AMP offers a more compact AMP Cortex-C and an integrated, standalone facility offering, and also resells recyclable commodities to end-market buyers. The startup employs around 200 people and reports a robotic fleet of roughly 275 units deployed in over 100 centers, with Waste Connections as its largest customer. AMP plans to grow its secondary sortation business across three U.S. production facilities in the Denver, Atlanta and Cleveland metro areas and pursue larger fleet-wide and international deployments. The company says new capital will help scale operations, retrofit existing recycling infrastructure and build technology and team capacity for upcoming opportunities. AMP Robotics develops AI-driven computer vision and high-speed robotics systems (AMP Cortex and AMP Neuron) that identify and sort recyclables from mixed material streams. Its technology recognizes materials by color, size, shape, opacity, and brand, and can recover items as small as bottlecaps or specific items like Keurig pods. AMP has hundreds of deployments across North America, Asia, and Europe and a coast-to-coast U.S. presence spanning more than 20 states, and signed its largest contract to deploy 24 systems with Waste Connections. The company will use the new funding to scale operations, develop new AI product applications for materials recovery facilities, and support market expansion with CPG partners such as Keurig Dr Pepper to help meet recycled-content goals. AMP's technology aims to improve material quality, worker safety, productivity, and reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions while increasing recycling rates and resource recovery. Headquartered and manufactured in Colorado, AMP positions itself as the leading provider of AI-guided robotics systems for recycling globally. AMP Robotics is a Denver-based company that builds recycling robots combining computer vision, machine learning and robotic automation to improve sorting efficiency and material quality. Its systems can identify branded packaging and are used to sort plastics, cartons, fiber and metals, with deployments across multiple U.S. states. In October the company completed a 14-robot installation at Single Stream Recyclers, the largest single deployment in the recycling industry, and its robots can sort and pick about twice as fast as people with higher accuracy. AMP has two revenue streams: a robotics-as-a-service offering and a direct sales option, and it has made installations in California, Colorado, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. The company plans to use new funding to expand manufacturing capacity, broaden its market scope and push into international markets, and it is building out reporting capabilities tied to its vision systems. AMP is also exploring applications beyond recyclables, including automotive scrap and construction waste.

Total raised

$261M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

Dec 2024