Bower offers a mobile app that leverages machine learning and computer vision to let users scan, identify, and better understand their waste, including package type, material composition, size and CO2e per item. The app rewards users for accurately sorting and depositing consumer packaging at regular recycling bins and provides real-time guidance and disposal instructions to local recycling facilities. Bower plans to open-source its computer vision model to benefit the wider recycling ecosystem and is developing a machine learning-powered waste collection experience with Google.org support. With backing from Google.org, the company aspires to save roughly 500,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents annually by promoting sustainable behaviors and recycling practices. Operational metrics in the article note over half a million users, endorsements from more than 200 global and local brands, and over 80 million packages incentivized since the company started in 2019. Bower is a Stockholm-based green tech app that pays users money or coupons when they recycle everyday items by scanning barcodes. The platform lets users scan products—from milk cartons to crisp packets—and receive rewards when they take packaging to a recycling point. Brands using Bower can track product life cycles and use app data to understand item types, recycling times and locations. The company was founded in 2015 by siblings Suwar Mert (CEO) and Berfin Roza Mert (COO). Bower has partnerships with Nestlé, L’Oréal and Unilever and operates a free-to-use app with 300,000 users in the Nordics. Those users recycle more than 1.4 million packages monthly, and the platform says it has helped save over 1,000 tonnes of CO2; Bower raised €4.1M to expand internationally, starting with the U.K., and has raised €5M in total to date.

Total raised

$6M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Grant

Latest activity

Nov 2023