StearClear Raises $600,000 In Funding

Sites include stearclear.com . Published on October 3rd, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The drink driving statistics are pretty bad around the world, and in America thousands are killed by people who have too much to drink and get behind the wheel anyway.

Start-up StearClear is looking to make the statistics less grim. Founded in November 2011, StearClear is a designated driver service run on mobile app that allows drivers way too drunk to drive, find a designated driver to get them home. The service is simple: a StearClear driver drives your car while another StearClear car stays in tow to see that everything runs smoothly.

Founders Craig Sher, Ken Schwartz, Andrew Bares and Harjinder Sidhu believed so much in the project that they pumped $975,000 of their cash into the venture. They’ve now been joined by a New Jersey angel investor group called JumpStart, who along with five other angels have pumped a further $600,000 into the venture.

The money will help make an ambitious move with the start-up as the founders are looking to roll out a franchise. The plan is to leverage the help and enthusiasm of local entrepreneurs and so far it has been well received by franchise opportunity seekers in New Jersey. Users have been happy about the service too and a recent soft-launch of the app saw 1,500 customer registrations and 3,000 app downloads.

It’s early days and StearClear is yet to make a nationwide roll out of the service but already there is a buzz among investors and users alike. There are thankfully many drivers who are responsible enough to not get behind the wheel drunk and StearClear is a fitting service to reward them for their sense of responsibility.