Recycleye raises $17m Series A

We are proud to participate in Recycleye’s $17M Series A round, having first backed the team in May 2020.

Recycleye uses AI-powered waste-picking robots to lower the cost of sorting materials and turning the world’s waste into resource. The technology combines computer vision and robotics to pick with more consistent accuracy than a human.

Using proprietary AI models, the robot scans and identifies objects at an unrivalled 60 frames per second – twice as fast as the industry standard making it the most accurate and efficient AI robotic picking solution globally available today.

Recycleye was developed for use with the waste generated by households and businesses, and is able to 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 start-up is working with a growing number of waste management companies facing the two-fold challenge of labour shortages and increased costs while responding to growing demand for quality recyclates.

Turning the world’s waste into resources

Today, many materials cost more to sort than they are worth and are therefore downcycled.

In 2022, the OECD reported that only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled, with around 50% going to landfill. Changing this wasteful and environmentally damaging dynamic, seen across a range of materials, presents a tremendous business opportunity.

A small team of Recycleye engineers is able to retrofit the company’s technology into existing sorting facilities, and over a weekend if needed to minimize plant downtime. Installed at the end of the sorting process, Recycleye robot models can pick contaminants and valuable objects, depending on client requirements, both of which may have been missed earlier in a plant’s sorting process.

We believe that waste does not exist, only materials in the wrong place. Our mission is to provide intelligent sorting technology that delivers dramatic financial and environmental returns to the global management of waste.

PETER HEDLEYCO-FOUNDER AND CTO, RECYCLEYE

Recycleye was co-founded in 2019 by CEO Victor Dewulf and CTO Peter Hedley, and its technology is installed in facilities in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Australia, the US and France, with multiple robot orders confirmed in Italy and Belgium.

The Recycleye team has grown to 33 experts and includes graduates of Cambridge, Caltech, Imperial College London and the Universities of Bath, Warwick, Cardiff, Sheffield and Southampton. The team boasts a wealth of experience in software, machine learning, robotics, engineering, project management, technical sales, HR, and marketing, drawn from sectors including oil and gas, energy, telecoms and technology.

The new investment will help Recycleye to scale its technology. For more on this story, see TechCrunch.