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Robot maker · registered

Glacier

Corporate marketrecyclingCurated record

AI-powered robotic arms controlled by computer vision identify and sort 30+ material types (plastics, film, flexibles, paper, OCC, metals) at material recovery facilities (MRFs); real-time Brand Intelligence data platform streams item-level waste-stream analytics to consumer brands and government clients; robots deployable as purchase, lease-to-own, or bundled with a managed maintenance package.

HeadquartersSan Francisco, US
Founded2019
Corporate funding$44M
Team11-50
Deployments4
Open roles3
01

Company overview

Identity and operating footprint

Company typeRobot maker
Market segmentCorporate
StageSeries A
FoundersRebecca Hu-Thrams (CEO), Areeb Malik (CTO)
Regions servedNorth America
Countries deployedUS
Service footprintHQ in San Francisco, CA; robots deployed at MRFs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, and Seattle.
Last reviewed2026-07-05
MX

Robot models

Specifications remain vendor-claimed

Machinerecycling

Glacier Sorting Arm

  • Identifies 70+ material categories covering ~90% of the typical curbside stream

    vendor-stated AI vision classification capability across recyclable streams

    Claim source
  • 60 successful picks per minute (in production, not theoretical)

    vendor-stated operational pick rate at live MRF deployments

    Claim source
  • 95% uptime across customer sites

    vendor-stated fleet-average availability at deployed MRFs

    Claim source
  • AI trained on 3 billion images from real recycling data

    vendor-stated training dataset size for the computer-vision model

    Claim source
DP

Deployment log

Announced and cited only

AnnouncedCustomerSiteCountryCountEvidence
2025-11-04Colgate-Palmolive (Brand Intelligence data product)consumer goods dataUSNot disclosedAnnouncement
2025-10-16Penn Waste (York County, PA)waste/recycling MRFUSNot disclosedAnnouncement
2025-10-16Waste Connections / Penn WasteMRFUSNot disclosedAnnouncement
2025-04-28Recology (King County MRF, Seattle)waste/recycling MRFUSNot disclosedAnnouncement
CA

Funding history

Publicly announced rounds

Investors on recordEcosystem Integrity FundNew Enterprise AssociatesAlleyCorpAmazon Climate Pledge FundOverture Climate VCVSC VenturesCox ExponentialElysiumOverlap HoldingsAlumni VenturesOne Small PlanetWorking Capital Fund
HR

Hiring signal

Public job board · 2026-07-13

Open roles3

Hiring is an operating signal, not deployment evidence. Roles are refreshed from the company’s public careers system.

TL

Company timeline

Milestones and announcements

2026-03-24Named Fast Company #1 most innovative company in Robotics & Engineering for 2026Glacier
2025-10-16Named to TIME's Best Inventions of 2025Glacier
2025-10-16Penn Waste deploys Glacier robots at York County PA MRF (one of the largest single-stream MRFs in the Northeast); ~1 in 10 Americans' recycling now processed by GlacierGlacier
2025-04-28Raised $16M Series A led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund (total $28.2M raised); expanded fleet to SF, LA, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, SeattleTechCrunch
SC

Source ledger

10 unique public sources