London’s Greyparrot gets $2.2 million for computer vision software that digitises recycling

Greyparrot, a London-based startup set on managing and reducing waste through AI, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding to prepare its product for global expansion. The round was led by Speedinvest with participation from Force Over Mass.

The AI startup provides waste recognition software to monitor and sort waste at scale, with the goal of increasing recycling rates. The first product, an automated waste monitoring system, is currently used on moving conveyor belts in sorting facilities to measure large waste flows. The system identifies different types of waste, providing composition information and analytics to facilities.

“One of the key problems we are solving is the lack of data,” says Mikela Druckman, co-founder and CEO of Greyparrot. “We see increasing demand from consumers, brands, governments and waste managers for better insights to transition to a more circular economy. There is an urgent opportunity to optimise waste management with further digitisation and automation using deep learning.”

The UK company has partnered with the largest recycling system integrator in South Korea, ACI, who designs, builds and maintains a majority of government-owned Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and related facilities in the country. The team is also already collaborating with suppliers of next-gen systems such as smart trashbins and sorting robots.

“Waste is not only a massive market, it builds up to a global crisis,” adds Marie-Hélène Ametsreiter of Speedinvest. “Greyparrot’s solution has proven to bring down recycling costs and help plants recover more waste. Ultimately it unlocks the value of waste and creates a measurable impact for the environment.”

Founded in 2019, the sustainable tech startup used a pre-seed round led by Candy Ventures to find its product-market fit. Now, the new funding will go to further product development and scaling into global markets.