Giving old toy bricks a second lease of life

With the help of AI, this company cleans and sorts old bricks into complete sets

Spotted: LEGO is one of the most popular toy brands in the world, with 30 LEGO sets sold every second around the world in the run-up to Christmas. As avid users of this kind of toy know, it’s extremely easy to misplace a brick or two, which can render entire sets unusable and bin-bound if these lost parts are important. Startup Sort A Brick is on a mission to change that.

Instead of allowing neglected toy bricks to sit in landfills, the company is helping enthusiasts repurpose their bricks and make the most of existing sets. Users simply send Sort A Brick all of their mixed-up bricks and choose the new models they want to build.

The company cleans and sorts the bricks with the help of AI-powered computer vision, then adds any missing items needed to complete the chosen models, which cost around a quarter of the price of a brand-new set. The bricks are then packed and shipped out to users, who now have the exact components they need to build the designs of their choice.

Ilya Malkin, co-founder and CEO, told Springwise that the idea for the company was conceived while he was playing LEGO with his kids. “Like many parents, I’ve struggled to make sense of buying new LEGO sets while unused bricks accumulate dust in our closet. I tried sorting old bricks by hand, but it proved too tedious. That’s when the idea for automatic brick sorting was conceived.”

Sort A Brick recently raised $1.15 million in investment, and the company has another funding round coming in the Spring of 2025. The money will go towards enhancing automation and efficiency so it can increase sorting capacity. The company is launching pilot services in Germany in autumn 2024.

Written By: Lisa Magloff