Amp Robotics scores $70M loan to build Virginia waste-sorting facility

LOUISVILLE — Amp Robotics Corp., a Louisville company whose technology helps keep recyclables out of landfills, recently scored $70 million in debt financing to build a waste-sorting and -processing facility in Portsmouth, Virginia.

“At full scale, the regional system is designed to process more than half a million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) annually — more than 1,400 tons every day—and divert at least half of that material from landfill,” Amp said of the Virginia facility, which it will build and operate through a partnership with the Southeastern Public Service Authority.

The facility will support Amp’s carbon-removal credit contract with Google to remove 200,000 metric tons of CO2e by 2030, the company said in a news release. 

“Unlike conventional recycling systems that generally depend on households and businesses to separate recyclables before collection, Amp’s technology can process raw MSW, including sealed trash bags,” according to the release. “Its system uses AI-powered cameras, robotics, and pneumatic jets to identify and recover plastics, metals, fiber, and organic material that might otherwise be landfilled.”

Investor Galvanize led the $70 million debt financing. 

“Waste is a massive, under-modernized infrastructure market, and Amp is changing its economics,” Galvanize partner Suresh Vasan said in the release. “The combination of proven AI-powered technology, long-term contracted demand, and measurable economic and environmental benefits makes this an especially compelling infrastructure investment. This financing provides a model for deploying capital at scale to help communities lower costs, extend landfill life, and recover value from material that would otherwise be discarded.”

Amp, founded in 2014 by Colorado native and University of Colorado Boulder graduate Matanya Horowitz, moved its headquarters in 2022 to a 84,000-square-foot facility in the Colorado Technology Center. 

The company closed a $91 million Series C funding round led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management in 2022, about a year after it raised a $55 million in a Series B.

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