Glacier—an AI and robotics company helping the recycling industry create a world without waste—announced it has raised $7.7 million in funding from NEA and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, with additional participation from AlleyCorp, Overture Climate VC, and VSC Ventures.
Glacier will allocate a major portion of the funding towards team expansion and developing its low-cost and high-performance AI-enabled robots. These robots streamline recyclable sorting while gathering real-time data on recycling streams for businesses. Glacier plans to utilize the funding to bolster its recycling capabilities, especially in light of its recent collaboration with Amazon. This partnership is geared towards enhancing traceability and recovery processes for recyclable materials.
Nearly 80% of residential recyclables in the U.S. are not recycled, contributing to significant environmental pollution and resource depletion. And traditional recycling facilities need more access to the highly specialized machinery required for efficiently sorting a wide variety of materials.
Utilizing advanced AI capabilities, Glacier identifies over 30 different materials, spanning from broad categories like plastic bottles and aluminum cans to specific items such as toothpaste tubes and cat food cans. And Glacier’s robots effectively sort a similarly wide array of items, including challenging materials such as grocery bags and trash bags, which are notoriously difficult to sort using traditional recycling processes.
Glacier’s technology is made for ease of deployability and the space limitations, installation downtime, and capital requirements often constrain recycling facilities. So Glacier designed a robot that occupies the same footprint as a person and can be installed with no facility downtime and no heavy machinery. One Glacier robot is able to pay back in less than one year.
Amazon’s investment was made possible through its Climate Pledge Fund and corporate venture capital fund – which also earmarked $53 million for its Female Founder Initiative. And Glacier is the second female CEO-led company to receive investment from the Climate Pledge Fund.
This funding round comes on the heels of a breakthrough year for Glacier. And the company was accepted into Elemental Excelerator’s prestigious 12th cohort, joining 15 startups dedicated to reimagining climate solutions across various sectors. Additionally, Glacier secured a major grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, supported by The Recycling Partnership, the Carton Council, and the Foodservice Packaging Institute, to deploy some units in the Detroit area. Through strategic partnerships, pilot programs, and ongoing deployments across the US, Glacier is dedicated to combating climate change one recyclable item at a time.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are excited to continue supporting Glacier’s mission of eliminating waste by automating recycling with AI and robotics. Glacier’s market-leading technology not only enhances recycling efficiency but also paves the way for companies across industries to understand the efficacy of their sustainability initiatives.”
- Ann Bordetsky, a partner at NEA
“Amazon is always looking at new ways to innovate on behalf of our customers, and plastic packaging is no exception. In order to build a future where new materials can be recycled at scale, we must test options to move these materials through the recycling system. Partnering with Glacier will enable us to test the role of novel AI and robotics-based recycling technologies so that we can identify and aggregate novel packaging materials that can ultimately be recycled and repurposed.”
- Nick Ellis, Principal of Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund
“Waste is a significant climate issue that’s not being solved quickly enough and we believe we’ve developed the right technology to solve it. Our breakthrough lies in designing purpose-built machinery tailored to solve the needs of the recycling industry.”
- Areeb Malik, co-founder of Glacier
“We’re always looking for ways to incorporate new technology into our sorting process. AI cameras are a great way to help us catch recyclables that were missed in the initial sorting, and to collect data that will help us make needed adjustments within our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).”
- Eduardo Rodriguez, Deputy Director of the City of Phoenix Public Works Department
“Glacier’s team is applying cutting-edge robotics and AI to a massive real-world problem in a uniquely resourceful way. As an investor specializing in robotics and deep tech, I can attest that building reliable custom industrial automation in just a few years is incredibly difficult. Glacier’s impressive technological expertise, relentless drive, and creative spirit have enabled them to do just that.”
- Abe Murray, General Partner at AlleyCorp
“The diversity of Glacier’s team is an invaluable asset as they work to solve a problem as complex as the climate crisis. We look forward to supporting more companies like them through their entrepreneurial journey.”
- Phoebe Wang, Investment Partner at Amazon Climate Pledge Fund
“We’re excited by the progress we’ve made in the recycling industry, but to maximize Glacier’s impact on recycling, it’s essential that we work with stakeholders across the circular economy, including brands. That’s why we’re thrilled to collaborate with a sustainability leader like Amazon.”
- Rebecca Hu, co-founder of Glacier
