Chrysalix is an early-stage industrial innovation venture capital firm that connects market-driven problems to breakthrough solutions. It invests in and supports compelling technologies and entrepreneurial management teams that address the changing demands of the global industry and actively work with their clients and support them with deep industry and technical knowledge, management and board assistance, organized networking with industrial and financial partners, management of intellectual property, and direct access to capital. In 2001, Wal van Lierop established the firm in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Chrysalix Venture Capital

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) catalyzes transformational energy technologies that could create a more secure and affordable American future. We advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. ARPA-E awardees are unique because they are developing entirely new ways to generate, store, and use energy.

ARPA-E

Breakthrough Energy Ventures is an investor-led fund made up of members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, guided by scientific and technological expertise and committed to investing patiently in developing new ways to live, eat, travel, and build. Breakthrough Energy Ventures provides reliable and affordable power without contributing to climate change. Breakthrough Energy invests in new technologies that make power reliable and affordable for everyone while not warming the planet.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures

We invest in, and strategically support, the entrepreneurs and mobility companies moving the Western world.

Assembly Ventures

Novelis is the leading producer of flat-rolled aluminum products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum. Novelis is the leading producer of flat-rolled aluminum products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum. They work alongside their  customers to provide innovative solutions to the beverage can, automotive and high-end specialty markets. Operating an integrated network of technically advanced rolling and recycling facilities across North America, South America, Europe and Asia, Novelis leverages its global manufacturing and recycling footprint to deliver consistent, high-quality products around the world. A commitment to sustainability is core to their business operations and extends to how they partner with stakeholders across the aluminum value chain. They see tremendous opportunities in continuing to expand the use of lightweight, infinitely recyclable aluminum to help their customers achieve their sustainability goals and provide consumers the environmentally friendly products they enjoy.

Novelis

RA Capital Management is an investment advisor based in Boston specializing in the life-sciences and drug development sectors. The company's team has been investing since 2002 and is comprised of professionals with training in biology, chemistry, and medicine and also has industry and business development experience at the executive and board levels. The company invests in companies with promising technologies and products.

RA Capital Management

T. Rowe Price is an investment management firm dedicated to funding technology startups. The firm serves individuals, financial intermediaries, and institutions and offers a full range of investment strategies across a broad spectrum: debt, equities, and private equities.

T. Rowe Price

Macquarie Group is a provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment, and funds management services focusing is making returns by providing a diversified range of services to clients. Macquarie acts on behalf of institutional, corporate, and retail clients, and counterparties around the world. It has expertise in specific industries, including resources and commodities, energy, financial institutions, infrastructure, and real estate. Macquarie's management approach fosters an entrepreneurial culture among staff. Strong prudential management is fundamental to this approach. Robust risk management practices are embedded in business unit management with central oversight of credit, market, funding, compliance and operational risk. These, together with a strong and committed team, are key drivers of Macquarie's success. Founded in 1969, Macquarie now employs more than 13,900 people in 28 countries. At 30 September 2013, Macquarie had assets under management of $US359 billion.

Macquarie Group

Mineral Resources Limited is a leading, integrated, Australian based mining services and processing company with operations in contract crushing, general mine services, infrastructure provision and recovery of base metal concentrate for export. Operations are supplemented by rehabilitation and sale of heavy duty crushing and processing equipment, hire of engineering and crushing fleet plant and workshop manufacture of polyethylene pipe fittings and components. Comprising long standing core businesses, PIHA Pty Ltd, Crushing Services International Pty Ltd Process Minerals International Pty Ltd, Polaris Metals Pty Ltd and Mesa Minerals Limited, Mineral Resources Limited has developed a strong reputation for the cost effective delivery of its services and products to the resources and infrastructure sectors.

Mineral Resources

Sortera Technologies

Sortera Alloys manufactures low-cost, high-quality metal alloys for domestic manufacturing using its artificial intelligence technology. Sortera Alloys is a company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was established in 2020.

Sortera Technologies (formerly Sortera Alloys) uses AI, sensors, and data analytics to sort and recycle industrial scrap metal. The company’s AI-powered technology combines X-ray fluorescence and optical sensor fusion, AI and machine learning image processing technology, and an advanced scrap feeder design, to separate existing streams of mixed alloy aluminum scrap into individual alloys for remanufacturing purposes. The recovered metals are recycled for use in high-value applications such as automotive cast, flat-rolled products, building, construction, and aerospace materials extrusions. The company claims that its recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy compared to aluminum produced from virgin raw materials, and tests conducted in 2014 indicated 95% sorting accuracy. As of July 2022, the company had over 30 patents relating to its proprietary technology.

Reinforcing recycling, rerouting refuse, and reducing wasteflows

Waste Recovery & Management Tech

Sortera Technologies, Inc. on LinkedIn: Sortera raises $44.4 million to sort metals for recycling

Sortera Technologies (formerly Sortera Alloys) uses AI, sensors, and data analytics to sort and recycle industrial scrap metal. The company’s AI-powered technology combines X-ray fluorescence and optical sensor fusion, AI and machine learning image processing technology, and an advanced scrap feeder design, to separate existing streams of mixed alloy aluminum scrap into individual alloys for remanufacturing purposes. The recovered metals are recycled for use in high-value applications such as automotive cast, flat-rolled products, building, construction, and aerospace materials extrusions. The company claims that its recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy compared to aluminum produced from virgin raw materials, and tests conducted in 2014 indicated 95% sorting accuracy. As of July 2022, the company had over 30 patents relating to its proprietary technology.As of March 2024, the company was working to open a new 200,000 sq ft processing facility in Markle, Indiana, increasing its annual mixed aluminum scrap processing capacity to 220 million lbs. In March 2023, Sortera opened an office in Austin, Texas for the company's R&amp;D team to focus on advancing technology in the recycling industry.Key customers and partnershipsIn early 2022, Sortera partnered with Novelis to deliver high-quality, recycled alloy from automotive scrap to Novelis, with the latter using the recycled material to remanufacture aluminum sheet for the automotive industry.Funding and financialsIn August 2023, Sortera Technologies raised USD 30.5 million in a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21385">Series C funding</a> round led by RA Capital Management-Planetary Health to expand into North America and accelerate its growth in the metals and recycling markets.

Based in the UK, SEaB Energy provides clients with a waste to energy technology. The company sells two products called Flexibuster and Muckbuster that convert waste into energy. Flexibuster converts organic waste, while Muckbuster is designed to convert slurry waste. These are anaerobic digestion units which are containerized and can be easily bought and installed by any entity to get the required power Flexibusters are suitable for small and medium sized entities that produce between 500kg and 2,500kg of organic waste per day. As of June 2021, the company operates and manufactures its products in England, Portugal, and the USA.According to the company, one cubic meter of waste creates one household unit of electricity. The company helps customers by collecting a sample of their feedstock and estimates how much power its products can deliver by converting the particular type of feedstock. The company reports that its clients include fortune 50 companies, hospitals, non-profit organizations, property developers, and hypermarkets.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://seabenergy.com/axon-partners-enagas-emprende-investment/">September 2022,</a> SEaB Energy raised an undisclosed investment led by Axon Partners Group to expand its solutions in Europe, Latin America and the US.

SEaB Energy

RoadRunner Recycling helps predict recycling plans for businesses (such as hotels, mills, warehouses) by using algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI). While helping them recycle their waste, the company also offers scheduled and one-off waste pickup services for businesses in the US.The company claims that the usage of its services has on average allowed a 16% saving in waste and recycling expenditures for customers and increased diversion from landfills by threefold.The company operates a shared-savings business model, where it generates revenue based on the level of the customer’s savings. As of October 2022, the company has diverted over 300,000 tons of material from disposal across 12,000 accounts, saving customers nearly USD 50 million on waste and recycling services.In October 2022, RoadRunner acquired Compology, the world's largest waste and recycling smart metering technology company.Key customers and partnershipsRoadRunner Recycling partnered with Avery Dennison (a label and packaging materials company) in September 2020 to launch a scalable matrix recycling program to help Avery’s <a href="https://www.packagingtechtoday.com/news-headlines/avery-dennison-launches-matrix-recycling-program-with-roadrunner-recycling/label-tape/">label</a> converters achieve their zero-waste-to-landfill goals. Some of the company’s key customers are Boxer Property, Forman Mills, and the PM Hotel Group.&nbsp;Funding and financials&nbsp;In its latest funding round in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14646">November 2022</a>, the company raised USD 20 million funding in its extended Series D round led by Fifth Wall. The funds were expected to support growth of the company's core business, expansion of enterprise offerings, and strengthening the investments in technology, thus improving sustainability in the real estate sector.

RoadRunner Recycling

<div>
 
 AMP (
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/26429">
 formerly
 </a>
 AMP Robotics) uses robots and AI to sort waste by type. Following the company&rsquo;s rebranding, it shifted focus from supplying sorting robots to building automated, facility-scale recycling solutions that incorporate AI and robotics. The company&rsquo;s AMP One-integrated sorting facility combines a number of AMP&rsquo;s modular solutions to deliver a material recovery facility (MRF) that requires no manual sorting. The facilities are able to autonomously sort multiple waste streams, including municipal solid waste, MRF residue, and mixed plastic waste into bales of materials.
 
 
 The modular solutions that make up AMP One include
 
 
 AMP Vision: 
 An AI-powered machine vision system capable of identifying over 50 categories of materials present in waste streams. The company claims it uses the world&rsquo;s largest real-world dataset for materials with over 75 billion data points.&nbsp;
 
 
 AMP Jet and Microjet: 
 An AI-based sorting system that leverages AMP Vision to identify materials and separates these two material streams simultaneously using two rows of 50 air nozzles. The system also uses AI to track the path of sorted materials and adjust jets. AMP Jet is claimed to be able to recover over 90% of target materials without human intervention. The Microjet is a compact version that can be mounted on the side of a conveyor belt.
 
 
 AMP Delta: 
 A robotic sortation system that uses AMP Vision to mechanically sort waste streams, reaching pick rates of over 80 items per mimute. Also available in Tandem (120 items per minute) and Compact (65 items per minute) variants.
 
 
 AMP Vac:
 A belt-mounted vacuum array that removes and collects thin film that can be used for pyrolysis applications. It is able to collect up to 120 picks per minute.
 
 
 AMP Insight and AMP SmartTons
 : A real-time reporting tool and system for tagging sorted bales, which can specify the exact composition and purity of the recovered material.
 
 
 The company reports that its plants are able to handle between 15 and 100+ kilotons of waste annually. AMP also has turnkey plants available, and claims it can deploy custom-built plants in as little as nine months. As of February 2024, the company has more than 230 deployments in more than 80 facilities and robotic systems in over 20 states in the US, and in Canada, Japan, and Europe.
 
 
 In May 2023, the company unveiled a complete line of 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18116">
 AI-powered automation solutions 
 </a>
 for materials recovery facilities (MRFs), including a new compact robotic sortation solution, AI-driven improvements in targeting and robotic gripping reliability, and integrated AI-powered facility solution.
 
 
 In November 2022, the company opened its new 84,000 sq ft facility in Louisville.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In September 2021, AMP installed its 
 <a href="https://ampsortation.com/articles/amp-robotics-installs-its-first-recycling-robots-in-the-united-kingdom-and-ireland-with-recyco">
 first AI-guided robotics
 </a>
 systems in the UK and Ireland with Recyco, a recycling and waste management business in Northern Ireland. In July 2023, the Kent County Department of Public Works (DPW) acquired three recycling robots from AMP Robotics. In March 2022, AMP extended its partnership with Evergreen, adding six robots in Riverside, California, and planned to add three more in Albany, New York, in addition to the existing six robots in Clyde. In June 2022, AMP expanded its partnership with its reportedly largest customer waste connections.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In November 2022, the company raised USD 91 million in corporate equity in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates?industryIds=54">
 Series C
 </a>
 funding round led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management. In May 2023, the company also raised an undisclosed amount from 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18384">
 Microsoft&rsquo;s Climate Innovation 
 </a>
 Fund, bringing AMP&rsquo;s Series C round to a total of more than USD 99 million. The company intended to use the funds to retrofit existing recycling infrastructure with technology solutions, as well as develop new infrastructure using AI-powered automation.
 
</div>

Redwood Materials was founded by Tesla’s former CTO to focus on e-waste recycling for remanufacturing and reuse. The company uses a proprietary technology to recover elements including cobalt, lithium, nickel, manganese and graphite from old battery cells (from vehicles and consumer electronics), which can be re-used for battery production.The company announced its first energy storage system recycling project&nbsp; in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23461">November 2023</a> — dismantling and recycling a 4MWh stationary storage substation in Kauai, Hawaii. In <a href="https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/redwood-materials-launches-pricing-tool-for-ev-batteries/">October 2023</a>, Redwood launched an online tool with advanced tracking and management systems for automotive dismantlers to value and sell recovered EV battery packs directly back to the company.&nbsp;In September 2023, Redwood Materials acquired <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22008">Redux Recycling</a> to accelerate Redwood's expansion into Europe.Key customers and partnershipsThe company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5878">Ford </a>in September 2021 to build a closed-loop for battery recycling and create a domestic battery supply chain for EVs in the US. The company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11597">Volkswagen</a> Group (Audi’s parent company) in July 2022 and Lyft in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14863">November 2022</a>, to recycle batteries while expanding its presence in the US.In January 2023, the company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15516">Flite</a>, an Australian electric hydrofoil producer, to recycle end-of-life Flitecell e-foil batteries in the US. In April 2023, the company expanded its partnership with Volkswagen to launch a consumer recycling program for rechargeable devices and lithium-ion batteries. During the same period, the company partnered with e-bike manufacturer <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18071">Rad Power Bikes</a> to launch an electric bike battery recycling program.In October 2023, the company partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22440">Panasonic</a> to extracting high-purity nickel from end-of-life batteries and supplying it to Panasonic Energy, a subsidiary of Panasonic Holdings, by 2028. This partnership is preceded by the agreement to purchase cathode-active materials and copper foil for EV lithium-ion batteries in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14645">November 2022.</a>In November 2023, the company announced that it would supply cathode materials and copper coils for battery cells produced at Toyota’s North Carolina plant (due to go into production in 2025). This builds on Redwood’s initial partnership with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11217">Toyota</a> in June 2022, under which the company would refurbish/recycle batteries from hybrid vehicles.Funding and financialsIn August 2023, Redwood Materials raised more than USD 1 billion in a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21369">Series D funding</a> round to expand its capacity, grow the domestic battery supply chain, and enable its customers to purchase battery materials made in the US for the first time. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16272">February 2023</a>, the Department of Energy (DOE) committed a USD 2 billion loan to Redwood Materials to construct and expand its battery recycling facility west of Reno, Nevada.

Redwood Materials

SmarterX (formerly Smarter Sorting) uses machine learning, algorithms, and a cloud-based platform to scan, identify, categorize, and sort chemical-containing products. This helps retailers and their suppliers get rid of unwanted chemicals, which Smarter Sorting will pick up to recycle instead of having them incinerated. The company also introduced a new regulatory platform in 2020 by partnering with a major retailer, to help retailers to ship and sell lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries sustainably, by providing them adequate support on regulatory requirements around li-ion battery products. The company provides its services in the USA and Canada.The company charges businesses a subscription fee per month based on the number of items they register for the sorting assessment.&nbsp;As of <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12053">August 2022</a>, the company had secured over 1,600 consumer brands and partnerships with 24 national supermarkets and retailers, including Costco, Wegmans, and Albertsons Companies. They claim their technology can classify 2 million consumer products across 3,500+ data points and 150 million chemical compounds.Funding and financialsIn August 2022, the company raised USD 7 million in a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12053">funding round</a> led by Regeneration VC. This is an extension of the company’s previous funding round in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9315">March 2022</a>.

SmarterX

Startups offering platforms or software solutions incorporating technologies such as sensors, robotics, and AI to monitor and improve the waste collection process using several methods: identifying optimal waste collection time, connecting businesses and individuals with haulers, optimizing trash pickup routes, and increasing transparency in waste management throughout the production process.

Startups that separate waste by type, either by using robotics or analytics (AI, machine learning), to help streamline the recycling process.

Startups that develop recycling technologies or provide solutions such as AI-based online platforms or algorithm-based predictive solutions to primarily support businesses in their in-house recycling efforts.

Startups developing recycling technologies, including the pyrolysis process or a recycled propylene technology, to convert plastic waste into products such as pure propylene, recycled plastic, crude oil, and furniture.

Startups developing recycling technologies such as polymer recycling, flexible hydrothermal processing, etc., to recycle textile waste into products that include carbon neutral fiber or transform the waste into new products with greater value through upcycling technologies.

Startups developing recycling technologies such as lithium-ion battery recycling processes or a Magnet-to-Magnetä recycling process to convert electronic waste into products that include recycled batteries and cathode materials.

Startups developing recycling technologies to separate materials made by combining two or more materials with different properties (composite materials) and recycle them into secondary use raw materials such as aluminum, plastic, leather, and cardboard.

Startups using proprietary technologies to recycle waste (besides plastic, textile, and electronic waste) into harmless waste materials or into materials that can be used to make household goods, furniture, and construction material.

Startups using recycling technologies such as anaerobic digestion or a chemical process to convert waste into energy.

Solutions that aim to keep waste out of landfills

Waste management platforms use AI/ML for analysis and real-time updates

Develops waste collection systems such as sensored bins, monitored waste collection, and on-demand waste collection

Reuses and recycles waste to keep them out of landfills

Provides sensor-based automated processes for waste management

IoT-enable devices and platforms to manage waste and improve recycling rates

Indiana-based startup Sortera Technologies has raised $30.5 million in a Series C funding round, led by RA Capital Management-Planetary Health. The company uses AI, sensors, and data analytics to sort and recycle industrial scrap metals. Other investors in the round included T. Rowe Price Associates, Mineral Resources Group, and Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions. The funding will be used to expand Sortera's operations in North America and accelerate its growth in the metals and recycling markets. Sortera previously raised $10 million in Series B funding and secured additional funding to scale its operations and provide high-quality metal recycling from automobiles. The company's facility in Markle, Indiana, is expected to be fully operational in 2023, increasing its overall processing capacity to 220 million pounds of mixed aluminum scrap annually.

Sortera Technologies

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