Molg Secures $5.5 Million Seed to Expand Robotic Microfactories for Sustainable Electronics Recycling
Molg, a Sterling, Virginia-based circular manufacturing and robotics startup, has closed a $5.5 million seed funding round to scale its innovative approach to tackling electronics waste and enable more sustainable manufacturing processes. The company uses advanced robotics and automated disassembly to recover valuable components and materials from complex electronic products such as laptops, servers, and other electrical hardware — an approach designed to keep critical resources in circulation while reducing waste.
The seed round was led by Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group, a venture arm dedicated to building the circular economy by investing in early-stage ventures advancing sustainability. Closed Loop’s leadership in the round reflects its belief in Molg’s potential to fundamentally change how electronics are manufactured, disassembled, and reintegrated into supply chains.
Joining Closed Loop Partners in the financing was the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, which invests in companies developing technologies that reduce carbon emissions and strengthen sustainable supply chains. The Climate Pledge Fund’s participation underscores Amazon’s ongoing commitment to decarbonization efforts and circular supply chain solutions that can help advance recycling and material recovery at scale.
The seed round also included investments from ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of ABB focused on robotics, automation and industrial innovation; Overture Climate VC, a climate technology-focused early-stage investor; Elemental Impact, a non-profit investing platform supporting climate solutions with local impact; and Techstars, a global seed accelerator that brings mentorship and early capital to startups.
Molg was founded in 2021 by CEO and co-founder Rob Lawson-Shanks and CTO Mark Lyons with a mission to tackle the growing problem of electronic waste, which is projected to generate tens of millions of tonnes of discarded devices each year. Traditional recycling methods recover only a fraction of valuable materials, leaving critical minerals and precious metals buried in landfills. Molg’s approach combines design for circularity with robotic automation to maximize material recovery, reduce environmental impact and create pathways for reuse or remanufacturing.
The company’s robotic microfactories are capable of autonomously disassembling complex products, which not only streamlines recovery of valuable components but also enables local processing where materials are most needed. Molg also works with manufacturers to redesign electronics with circularity in mind, ensuring new products are easier to disassemble and reintroduce into supply chains, potentially transforming the lifecycle of electronics and reducing reliance on virgin materials.
Molg plans to use the new funding to scale production capacity for its robotic microfactory solutions and meet growing customer demand for circular supply chains and automation. The capital will support expansion of manufacturing operations, reinforce the company’s engineering and design work, and accelerate deployments of automated disassembly systems at partner facilities. Early installations have already been deployed at recycling and IT asset disposition (ITAD) facilities, with further rollouts planned as demand for sustainable electronics solutions increases.
Investor statements highlighted both environmental and strategic value in Molg’s technology. Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group emphasized Molg’s ability to unlock scalable solutions that maximize the recovery of critical materials and strengthen domestic supply chains, while the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund noted that improved hardware demanufacturing and material recovery technologies like Molg’s are promising avenues for advancing industry-wide recycling efforts. ABB Robotics & Automation Ventures and other backers underscored the importance of integrating industrial robotics into recycling and manufacturing to boost circularity and sustainability across sectors.
Molg’s funding round comes at a time of increasing global focus on circular economy solutions, as manufacturers, regulators and consumers look for ways to reduce waste and resource depletion. The rapid acceleration of e-waste — driven by rising consumption of electronic devices and shorter product lifecycles — has created urgency around more efficient and environmentally responsible demanufacturing technologies. Molg’s investors see the company’s robotic microfactory model as uniquely positioned to contribute meaningfully to these emerging industrial trends.
As Molg scales its operations and continues to deploy autonomous disassembly systems, its funding foundation provides a springboard for broader impact. By combining robotics, automated processes and circular design principles, the company aims to keep valuable materials in circulation, reduce the carbon footprint of electronics manufacturing and create new pathways for sustainable supply chain management in the years ahead.
