Clean Earth Rovers

Clean Earth Rovers is using autonomous vehicles to monitor and clean up our waters.

Every year, our waterways are invaded by harmful algal blooms. This is when colonies of algae, simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater areas, grow out of control and produce toxic and harmful effects on people, fish, and marine life.

These events, known as HABs, cost seventeen billion dollars’ worth of damages, and impact sectors like tourism, fisheries, and even public health. And due to a lack of infrastructure, it can be challenging to see these events coming.

The problem in many areas is exacerbated by a lack of monitoring. Current techniques include sending someone once a week to take samples by hand. But this is data-intensive, costly, and time-consuming. In many cases, there isn’t a remote-monitoring system in place. And if there is, it costs as much as $200,000.

In addition to HABs, our waters are increasingly impacted by oil spills and mounds of trash. These take hours to clean manually and cost coastal businesses more than two billion dollars a year.

These are the problems that Clean Earth Rovers aims to solve. And it’s created two solutions.

The first is DataPod, a small-scale monitoring system that looks like a miniature robot. These pods skim along the water to monitor six key metrics, including PH levels, temperature, and oxygen levels.

The second is the Rover, a multi-purpose autonomous system designed to meet coastal water quality management needs. It can be configured for advanced data collection through autonomous missions, facility surveillance, or physical debris removal. It can move ten times faster than a human, operate six times more efficiently, and collect up to 100 pounds of debris at a time.

Clean Earth’s customers include university researchers, public-works departments, emergency-services contractors, and public/private marinas. The company has received funding from the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Venture Labs and Xavier University. And it has partnerships with SeaDoo (a water sports recreation company), Spillbully (oil-absorbent company), and Seed World (a waste-sorting business).

In January 2023, Clean Earth secured more than $300,000 in revenue commitments with the potential to close contracts worth up to $700,000 by the end of Q2 2023. The company will initially focus on California and Florida, where there are a combined 1,600 miles of coastline and sixty million acres of fresh water.

Team Background

Michael Arens - Co-Founder & CEO

Michael started Clean Earth Rovers in 2019.

Previously, he was a business consultant with Searen, an environmental-services company. Prior to that, he worked in sales for Single Phase Power Solutions, a machinery-manufacturing business.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship from Xavier University.

David Constantine - Co-Founder & COO

In addition to his role with Clean Earth, David is a commercial analyst with Redwood Logistics, a transportation and supply-chain company.

Previously, he was an analyst with Stagecoach Partners, a consulting firm focused on commercial real estate. Before that, he was an analyst with Yagoot, an Ohio-based food and beverages company.

David earned a Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship from Xavier University and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago.

Rob Charvat - Chief Technology Officer

Rob is an experienced engineer. In addition to his role with Clean Earth, he is Founder & CTO of Posterity, a company that supports government contracts related to manufacturing and commercial applications.

Prior to joining Clean Earth, he co-founded Ohio Drone, a company making drones for emergency-services applications and military/defense capabilities. Before that, he spent seven years with GE, working as a fuel-system engineer.

Rob earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Co-Investors