Closed Loop Seeds Circular Manufacturing Solution

Molg has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to expand its circular manufacturing process and address the growing global problem of electronic waste.

The funding round, led by Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures, Overture Climate VC, Elemental Impact, and Techstars.

Molg will use the seed capital to scale its production capabilities, driven by robotics and automation, to meet rising customer demand for sustainable electronics supply chains. According to the UN Global E-waste Monitor, only 22.3% of the world’s e-waste was recycled in 2022. The remaining waste, often dumped in landfills, releases hazardous chemicals into the environment. Additionally, over $62 billion worth of critical minerals and valuable materials embedded in electronics go unrecovered, leaving gaps in the supply chains needed to support the clean energy transition.

The electronics industry is grappling with the complexities of managing increasing volumes of obsolete devices while also facing escalating demand for critical minerals used in the production of batteries, data centers, and clean energy infrastructure. According to the World Economic Forum, global e-waste will reach nearly 75 million metric tons by 2030. As these materials become scarcer, the need for innovative solutions like Molg’s is becoming more urgent. By recovering critical domestic resources, Molg’s technology helps mitigate environmental damage and strengthens supply chains by reducing reliance on foreign sources of minerals like cobalt and lithium.

Molg’s founders, led by CEO Rob Lawson-Shanks, developed the company with the mission to reduce e-waste through a process that integrates circularity into electronics’ manufacturing and recovery stages. “Achieving true circularity requires a fundamental shift in the underlying systems that support de-manufacturing. It starts with better design and is enabled by dynamic automation,” said Mr. Lawson-Shanks. “This funding allows us to accelerate our work at both ends of a product’s life, designing for circularity from the start and recovering valuable devices, components and materials through automated disassembly.”

At the core of Molg’s solution are robotic micro-factories capable of autonomously disassembling complex electronic devices, such as laptops and servers. These micro-factories are designed to recover critical components and materials, which can be reused or recycled, keeping them within supply chains and out of landfills.

By partnering with major electronics manufacturers, including HP, Dell, and ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures, Molg is also helping companies redesign products to enable easier recovery of valuable parts. The firm’s dual focus on circular design and robotic disassembly is intended to create a closed-loop system for electronics, where one product’s end-of-life feeds into the beginning of another.

“We invested in Molg because they are rethinking how critical materials can be recovered from electronics, addressing a historically overlooked source of valuable resources,” said Aly Bryan, an investor on the ventures group team at Closed Loop Partners. “Their process maximizes the value of recovered materials and allows for local recovery where materials are most needed––important parts of advancing the circular economy.”

Amazon, one of Molg’s backers through its Climate Pledge Fund, is also looking to boost the circularity of its own supply chains through investments in companies like Molg. “Amazon remains committed to our decarbonization efforts and supporting technologies that aim to improve the circularity of our supply chains,” said Sam LaPierre, an investor with Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. “Efforts to improve hardware demanufacturing and material recovery, such as those developed by Molg, are promising technologies that can help advance the recycling and material recovery industries at scale. We are excited to support the growth of Molg, a company at the forefront of unlocking circular supply chains for electronics.”

ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures, which also participated in the funding round, views Molg’s innovations as a critical advancement in using robotics for sustainable manufacturing and recycling. “Our investment in Molg will open new possibilities for using industrial robots in the recovery and recycling of data center equipment,” said Craig McDonnell, managing director of ABB Robotics. “By helping to enable the automated disassembly and responsible disposal of disused electronics, we are excited to be playing our role in transforming the circularity and sustainability of the data center sector.”

Elemental Impact, another investor in Molg’s funding round, highlighted the potential for robotics and artificial intelligence to help solve the growing e-waste problem. “We invested in Molg to help solve two critical challenges: dealing with mountains of toxic waste that are growing yearly and meeting the rapidly increasing demand for critical minerals in batteries, data centers, and electronics,” said Elemental Impact CEO Dawn Lippert. “Molg is an example of how innovation in AI and robotics can be good for the planet and consumers: why would we landfill precious metals when we can recover them domestically and reuse them?”

New York City-headquartered Closed Loop Partners focuses on building the circular economy through venture capital, private equity, and credit strategies. Founded in 2016, it has invested in companies across material science, robotics, and advanced technologies. Its Ventures Group is actively involved in early-stage investments in the circular economy.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund is a $2 billion fund launched in 2020 to support the development of sustainable technologies and services that help Amazon and other companies achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures is the venture capital unit of ABB Robotics. Founded in 2009, the unit invests in robotics and automation startups. ABB has invested over $500 million in technologies aligned with its automation and electrification portfolio.

Elemental Impact is a non-profit investing platform headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. It targets early-stage companies in sectors such as renewable energy, waste reduction, and sustainable infrastructure.

Santa Monica, California-headquartered Overture Climate VC is an early-stage venture fund that invests in climate technology startups in the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages. Its portfolio spans various climate tech sectors, and its geographic focus includes North America and Europe.