Danu Robotics takes its recycling robot to market

After six years of development, Edinburgh-based Danu Robotics is bringing its recycling-sorting robot, H.E.R.O., to market. Founder Amy Ma began working on the idea after seeing recycling from her London bank office emptied into the trash. She told TechCrunch that different recycling bins ended up in the same place.

H.E.R.O. uses a pincer claw to pick up items instead of the suction systems used by some competitors. Danu’s business approach also relies on artificial intelligence to improve the robot’s software over time. The company has letters of interest from two large customers and signed contracts worth $500,000. More than 200 customers are in its sales pipeline, in a recycling-sorting market the company describes as worth $20 billion across Europe and North America.

Danu has raised $5 million in late-seed funding. Ma estimates that a working site could earn $485,000 in additional revenue with the robot on its sorting line, against an initial investment of $160,000 and annual maintenance fees of $24,000. These figures are Ma’s estimates.

Ma says Danu’s next goal is to make H.E.R.O. sturdier, smaller and more versatile. She told TechCrunch that a portable version could sort waste at events, shopping centers, hospitals or airports.