Recycleye, a London, UK-Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven waste robotics company that provides solutions for sorting dry mixed recycling, announced that it raised a $17 million Series A financing round.
The round was led by DCVC, with existing investors increasing their stakes. Promus Ventures, Playfair Capital, MMC Ventures, Creator Fund, and Atypical were joined by new Madrid-based investors Seaya Andromeda.
Series A follows $5m previously raised in 2021 and $2.6m secured to date in European and UK government innovation funding. The new investment will be used to further improve the uncommon accuracy of Recycleye’s sorting.
“The opportunity for applying AI waste sorting technology to the global waste management sector is staggering, even when only 8% of waste is currently recycled,” Victor Dewulf, CEO of Recycleye. “With this investment, we can scale our operations to target a market which we estimate to have a SAM of $114bn globally today, but with the potential to increase by 14 times to $1.6Tr when the cost of sorting is reduced”.
Recycleye uses AI-powered waste-picking robots to lower the cost of sorting materials. This ground-breaking technology is turning the world’s waste into a resource and delivering data essential for dynamic decision-making in a Material Recovery Facility (MRF).
Its technology combines computer vision and robotics to pick with more consistent accuracy than a human. Using proprietary AI models, the robot “sees” waste and is trained to pick an unlimited number of material classes such as plastics, aluminum, paper, and cardboard.
Recycleye was developed for use with the waste generated by households and businesses and can operate 24/7, 365 days a year, currently picking up to 33,000 items per robot over a 10-hour shift, while capturing compositional data to enable strategic decisions by plant managers.
The company is working with a growing number of waste management companies facing the two-fold challenge of labor shortages and increased costs while responding to a growing demand for quality recyclates.
Company: Recycleye Ltd.
Raised: $17.0M
Round: Series A
Funding Month: February 2023
Lead Investors: DCVC
Additional Investors: Promus Ventures, Playfair Capital, MMC Ventures, Creator Fund, Atypical, and Seaya Andromeda
Company Website: https://recycleye.com/
Software Category: Waste Management
About the Company: Founded in 2019 by Victor Dewulf and Peter Hedley, Recycleye is a ground-breaking technology company bringing advanced machine learning, computer vision, and robotics to the global waste management industry. Its proven Recycleye Vision and Robotics solutions increase plant performance, enabling data-driven strategic decision-making and delivering transparency, traceability, and efficiency. Installed in facilities in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Australia, the US, and France, with multiple robot orders confirmed in Italy and Belgium. Recycleye is relied on by our clients to add value to their sorting operations through increased purity and outputs.
Source: https://www.waste360.com/recycling/recycleye-raises-additional-17-million-series-funding