Sort A Brick, a Lithuanian startup, has secured €1,150,000 to scale its AI-powered LEGO brick sorting service, with plans to launch in Germany by 2025.
This circular business model reduces waste and offers a cost-effective way for families to reuse their old LEGO collections.
Sort A Brick offers a service that cleans, sorts, and repackages customers’ LEGO bricks into original or custom sets, giving a second life to already-owned toys.
“Millions of LEGO bricks sit unused in boxes because neither kids nor parents want to sift through them,” says Aurimas Slapšys, co-founder and Managing Director of Sort A Brick.
“We help by cleaning and sorting customers’ brick collections, then using our proprietary software to suggest new models to build. This offers kids a brand-new building experience for a smaller price than buying new sets from the store.”
The idea for Sort A Brick was conceived by co-founder Ilya Malkin, who saw his own family’s use of LEGO items as wasteful:
“I love LEGO toys for my kids, but they would often build each model once and then ask me to buy a new set,” says Malkin.
“This isn’t just expensive – it also contributes to the build-up of unsustainable plastic in the world.”
Most LEGO parts are made of difficult-to-recycle ABS plastic. While the manufacturer does not disclose official numbers, Malkin estimates that LEGO has produced 1.5 trillion of these bricks since its first series in 1958.
The financial support comes from the Baltic-focused VC fund Firstpick, nine business angels, and the founders’ initial investment of €200,000.
On his decision to invest in Sort A Brick, Mantas Mikuckas, co-founder of Vinted, says:
“Circular businesses have huge potential because they address real problems while also cutting CO2 emissions.
Sort A Brick is a great example, letting kids enjoy their toys more while saving parents money and reducing their environmental footprint.
It has also developed a truly unique approach, as the only company that actually sorts LEGO bricks for you.”
Sort A Brick’s proprietary AI system analyses bricks to determine what models can be built from the mix. The bricks are sorted accordingly, and returning customers’ LEGO pieces are repackaged by set and with online-accessible instructions.
“The core technology is a computer vision algorithm that can recognise the different bricks and identify possible combinations. The sorting process will work like an automated assembly line, where machines clean, group, and sort the bricks new,” Malkin explains.
The startup is using the recent funding to build up its operations, investing in prototype machinery, advanced computer vision, software development, and market tests.
“We are currently preparing to raise additional funding to upgrade our technology to automatic operations, increase capacity, and improve product experience for our customers. This will allow us to make the service fully available not only in Germany, our first target market, but also to expand further,” Malkin adds.
By spring 2025, the startup seeks to raise a new round of €2,500,000 with international VC funds. it aims to expand across Europe, starting with a limited launch in Germany this October.
Lead image: Paulius Vidugiris (Software Engineer), Ilya Malkin (Chief Business Development Officer), Linas Klimas (Computer Vision & Machine Learning Engineer), Aurimas Slapšys (Managing Director & Head of Software and Data), Konstantinas Gorbas (Lead Operator), Ingrida Ragėnienė (Operator), Justas Kranauskas (Head of Computer Vision & Machine Learning), Zita Purickienė (Product Marketing Lead), Paulius Banys (Operator). Photo: uncredited.
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