Objective
Marine litter costs the EU economy between €259 million and €695 million per year, affecting mainly the tourism and the fisheries sectors. Up to 90% of the plastic in the oceans comes from land, typically from rivers, canals, and ports. The problem must be then tackled at the source; once it reaches the ocean, 99% of the plastics eventually ends up on the sea bottom or inside marine life. To prevent marine litter, RanMarine has developed the WasteShark – a water drone that can autonomously clean up ports and inland waters. It has a carrying capacity of 550 litres and a buoyancy of 400kg, and multiple WasteSharks can coordinate to operate in self-organizing swarms. The WasteShark is also equipped with sensors that allow the drone to gather data about the environment while collecting garbage. The breakthrough of our product is its robustness, as it contains no moving parts apart from the standard thrusters, and its price, as it is an order of magnitude less expensive than existing alternatives. These characteristics have already convinced the Port of Rotterdam – the largest in Europe – to be our first paying customer after that a pilot concluded in Q1 2017 was positively evaluated. According to our estimates, thanks to the WasteShark (and related products) RanMarine will have an EIBTDA of over 2 million euros in 2020 and will employ 25 people by then.
The WasteShark has been designed and built in the Netherlands by an international team of very experienced entrepreneurs, technologists, and business developers. Our goal is to make the WasteShark available commercially in Q3 2018. In order to be successful in this endeavor, we have to better assess the commercial potential of our innovation and
refine our go-to-market strategy thanks to the SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managemententrepreneurship
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robotsdrones
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.2.5. - Cross-cutting marine and maritime research
- H2020-EU.3.2.3. - Unlocking the potential of aquatic living resources
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
3029 AK Rotterdam
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.