Berlin-based ocean cleanup organising platform Cleanhub has raised just short of €4 million in a seed round led by Lakestar and 468 Capital. The round also saw participation from Übermorgen Ventures, Pirate Impact Capital, and Angel Investors Andreas Brenner, Marc Stöckli, Charles Songhurst, Erik Hahnloser, and Friedrich Neuman. Cleanhub reports that the funding will be used to further flesh out the technology stack and expand its tracking abilities for larger collections.
Founded in January of 2020 by Bosse Rothe, Joel Tasche, and Florin Dinga, the Cleanhub platform serves as a connector between brands whose plastic products may eventually end up polluting the planet’s oceans and local collection partners who collect non-recyclable plastic in the coastal regions of developing countries.
Through a track and trace process, companies can verify a positive environmental impact by neutralising their plastic emissions.
“Since our initial research in 2018, our goal has been to find a solution to marine plastic pollution that is both scalable and impactful,” comments CEO Tasche.
With an estimated 11 million tons of plastic entering oceans each year via rivers, Cleanhub has seen interest from, and partnered with more than 70 brands including Noughty, FOAMIE, Vuori, Nordgreen, Share, OceanBrands, and Würth to date, and recovered the environment equivalent to the weight of more than 20 million water bottles in India, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Brazil.
"We were very impressed with CLEANHUB's approach because of its multi-faceted solution to the plastic crisis. Their focus on the right countries, material types, and recovery technologies showed us that they dive deep into the problem. We are excited to join Cleanhub on their journey to make a meaningful contribution to solving one of the biggest environmental problems of our generation," concludes Übermorgen Ventures’ Alexander Langguth.
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