A Cincinnati startup aiming to clean the nation's waterways just signed its largest deal yet.
Clean Earth Rovers, whose underwater rovers monitor water quality and clean plastic and pollution out of waterways, announced this week a distribution deal with Naples, Fla.-based B&B Services. Terms of deal were not disclosed.
As part of the agreement, B&B Services will sell a minimum of 20 of Clean Earth's flagship product to its partners in South Florida and along the Gulf Coast. The first five rovers, which are being built at the University of Cincinnati's 1819 Innovation Hub, will be shipped in May, according to a news release.
The deal comes as Clean Earth Rovers CEO Michael Arens and his team seek to raise just more than $1.2 million via crowdfunding site Wefunder. Clean Earth Rovers has raised $250,000 in capital and grant funding to date to build out its product and acquire new customers, most recently with a $100,000 friends-and-family round in June 2022.
Arens, a Xavier University alum, co-founded Clean Earth Rovers in 2019 with a team that largely includes XU and University of Cincinnati graduates. The company, he said, is the only startup based in the U.S. developing this type of solution.
The company’s “Plastics Piranha,” an autonomous rover, works much like a Roomba vacuum but on water. It skims the surface to physically remove waste and debris, including trash, fish, oil and algae.
Clean Earth also has developed “datapods” or buoys with sensors that can remotely monitor water quality and collect data on harmful toxins like blue-green algae or E. coli.
Clean Earth was named an Inno on Fire winner by Cincy Inno in 2022.
