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Series Seed · 2026

Clearwell

A gravity-fed, solar-assisted water station that turns any village well, river or rain tank into safe drinking water for 2,000 people a day. No grid. No chemicals. No specialist to maintain it.

Ceramic + carbon + UV-C99.999% bacteria removal$0.002 per litre
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01 · The problem

Two billion people still drink water that can make them sick.

2.1B

without safe water at home

Families walk an average of 6 km a day to collect water that is often contaminated.

1,000

children lost every day

Diarrhoeal disease from unsafe water remains a leading killer of children under five.

73%

of rural filters fail in year one

Imported systems break, need spare parts nobody stocks, or depend on power that isn't there.

Figures are illustrative for this concept deck.

02 · The solution

A water station built to outlive its warranty.

Clearwell is a modular, 1.8 m tall station assembled on site from six parts in under two hours. Gravity does most of the work; a 40 W solar panel powers the UV-C stage and a small sensor board that reports water quality over SMS.

2,000 L / day10-year ceramic coreRepairable with local tools
RAW ceramic + carbon UV-C SAFE
03 · How it works

Four stages, zero chemicals, one tap.

Settle

A 200 L header tank lets sand and silt drop out before water reaches the filters.

Filter

Silver-lined ceramic candles at 0.2 microns stop bacteria and protozoa. Activated carbon handles taste and some chemicals.

Sterilise

Solar-powered UV-C LEDs neutralise any viruses that remain, at under 8 W of power.

Report

Turbidity and flow sensors text the operator weekly and flag when a candle needs a 10-minute scrub.

04 · The product

Designed with the people who maintain it.

Every Clearwell station comes with a trained local caretaker, a laminated picture manual in the local language, and a spare-parts kit that fits in a backpack.

$1,450

landed cost per station

94 kg

fits on a pickup or two donkeys

6 parts

no welding, no concrete pour

10 yrs

design life of the ceramic core

settling filtration UV-C + tap
05 · Field pilots

Tested in 3 regions, 41 stations, 18 months.

LAKE REGION · 2025

Nyamira Basin

17 stations serving 31,000 people from turbid river water. Clinic visits for diarrhoea fell 58% in the first year.

92% uptime

HIGHLANDS · 2025

Kalema Hills

14 stations on hand-dug wells. Caretakers made every repair themselves; median fix time was 22 minutes.

97% uptime

COASTAL · 2026

Sabani Delta

10 stations on rain tanks, plus a desalination add-on in beta. Girls' school attendance rose 21%.

89% uptime

Place names and results are invented for this concept.

06 · Impact

What 41 stations did in 18 months.

63k

people with daily safe water

29M

litres filtered and logged

-58%

waterborne illness at partner clinics

410t

CO₂ avoided by not boiling water

07 · Business model

Water as a service, priced below what families pay to boil it.

Community tap

Families pay 5 cents for 20 litres by mobile money. That covers the caretaker's wage and spare parts, and leaves a 22% margin.

Institutions

Schools and clinics sign 5-year service contracts, often co-funded by NGOs and county health budgets.

Carbon credits

Verified emissions avoided from boiling bring in about $180 per station each year, paying back the hardware in 7 years.

Unit economics per station (projected)
$1,450
hardware + install
$610 / yr
net revenue
2.4 yrs
payback
08 · Team & roadmap

Engineers, health workers and operators.

AM

Amara Mensah

CEO. Ran rural water programmes for 9 years.

LV

Lukas Varga

CTO. Former filtration R&D lead in industrial membranes.

PN

Priya Nair

Head of Health Impact. Epidemiologist and field trial designer.

JO

Joseph Odhiambo

Head of Operations. Built a 400-person caretaker network.

Q1 2027Local assembly line, 30 stations per month
Q3 2027250 stations in 4 countries
2028Desalination module and household mini-unit
20291,000 stations serving 2 million people
09 · The ask

We're raising $3.5M to reach 250 villages.

45%

manufacturing and the local assembly line

35%

deployments and caretaker training

20%

R&D: desalination module and household mini-unit

hello@clearwell.example

Clean water shouldn't depend on where you were born.