December 5, 2024 (press release) –
AMP Robotics Corp. ("AMP"), a leading provider of AI-powered sortation at scale for the waste and recycling industry, has raised $91 million in corporate equity in a Series D financing led by Congruent Ventures. The round featured participation from current and new investors, including Sequoia Capital, XN, Blue Earth Capital, Liberty Mutual Investments, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), Wellington Management, Range Ventures, and Tao Capital Partners.
AMP will use the latest funding to accelerate the deployment of its AMP ONE™ systems, which are capable of cost-effectively sorting municipal solid waste (MSW), as demonstrated by the first-of-its-kind system AMP operates in Portsmouth, Virginia. Last month, AMP also entered into an agreement with Waste Connections, Inc. (TSX/NYSE: WCN) to equip and operate one of Waste Connections' single-stream recycling facilities in Colorado. AMP ONE provides a full-scale facility solution to sort various material streams and capture more of the billions of dollars in value otherwise lost to landfills or incinerated annually.
"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."
AMP's AI uses deep learning to continuously train itself by processing millions of material images into data. The software uses pattern recognition of colors, textures, shapes, sizes, and logos to identify recyclables and contaminants in real time, enabling new offtake chemistries and capabilities. AMP's first products were a series of sorting robots deployed with minimal retrofit into existing recycling facilities. The company then pioneered a series of next-generation, transformative recycling facilities. With near-zero manual sorting, unprecedented reliability, and pervasive data, these facilities make the recovery of commodities safer and more cost-effective than ever and have grown to encompass MSW sorting, an offering out of reach to the industry prior to the advent of AMP's technology.
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."
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."
AMP recently augmented its leadership team with the appointment of Stuart, former chief operating officer for Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG). Horowitz transitioned into the role of chief technology officer.
About AMP™
AMP is applying AI-powered sortation at scale to modernize the world's recycling infrastructure and maximize the value in waste. AMP gives waste and recycling leaders the power to harness AI to reduce labor costs, increase resource recovery, and deliver more reliable operations. The company's AI platform has identified 150 billion items and guided the sortation of more than 2.5 million tons of recyclables. With three full-scale facilities and more than 400 AI systems deployed across North America, Asia, and Europe, AMP's technology offers a transformational solution to waste sortation and changes the fundamental economics of recycling.
About Congruent Ventures
Congruent Ventures is a leading early-stage venture firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs to build companies addressing climate and sustainability challenges across four themes: Mobility and Urbanization, the Energy Transition, Food and Agriculture, and Sustainable Production and Consumption. The firm has more than $1 billion in AUM across early-stage climate tech funds, making it one of the largest climate portfolios in early-stage venture. With 59 companies in the portfolio, Congruent is amongst the most active investors in the climate and sustainability ecosystem.
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