Drop It: water-soluble tablets that replace plastic packaging for glass cleaner

This technology-based startup makes tablets that dissolve in water for use as glass cleaner or multipurpose cleaner. Operating since 2022, the small business has avoided the production of 7.9 tons of plastic for packaging cleaning products. Drop It has just won one of the three prizes of the Know Hub Ignition program to travel to the United States to validate and strengthen its business model.

Three years ago, Nicolás Retamal was living in Germany. He worked cleaning houses and also in construction. In that work he was struck by the amount of plastic being thrown away and began to think about how to solve the problem when he returned to Chile. He started studying chemistry and various scientific articles to find out what prospects there were for using tablets to replace the plastic packaging of cleaning products.

“When I came back to Chile I told a cousin and a friend about the idea, and they thought it was great. We started working on the first developments and consolidating the concept,” says Retamal, now CEO of Drop It, a startup founded in 2021 that uses technology to make tablets soluble in tap water, replacing the plastic other companies use to package products for household bathrooms and kitchens.

“We have realized that the greatest strength of our value proposition is avoiding the generation of plastic. Every tablet we make avoids one plastic bottle, and the bottle you use the tablet in can also be reused. The tablet is used with tap water, which also has an impact on transport logistics and on household waste management. We reduce the carbon footprint of transport by more than 90 percent,” Retamal adds.

Specifically, the capsules Drop It offers are glass cleaners and multipurpose cleaners. Since Drop It began operating, Retamal says, they have avoided the production of 7.9 tons of plastic packaging. “It is a dry, ultra-concentrated product that reaches optimal performance when dissolved in 500 ml of water, although it can also be adapted to 250 ml,” he explains. While two products are currently on the market, they expect to launch 20 more before the end of the year. Those in final testing are a descaler, a dishwashing liquid and an air freshener.

“It’s important to say that our product is designed, manufactured and sold in Chile. It is an innovation from Chile to the world, which also allows us to expand beyond our borders more easily than our competitors,” adds Nicolás Retamal, who runs Drop It together with Fernando Avaria (CCO) and Marcelo Torres (COO).

The startup is constantly updating its product versions. “Many of the versions people knew a couple of months ago are no longer the same,” says Retamal, who also notes that the current business model (B2C) is in transition (to B2B). “We want to grow by selling to companies in the HORECA sector (hotels, restaurants, casinos) in five-liter formats, which doesn’t mean we will stop selling our products through e-commerce,” the entrepreneur reveals.

Drop It travels to the United States

In recent days, Drop It received great news: it was one of the three technology-based startups chosen in the final phase of the Know Hub Ignition 2023 program, along with Beloop and Bioproc. This means that the team behind Drop It will travel to the United States for an international immersion period in the University of California, Riverside ecosystem.

The recognition came after 10 weeks of training to validate their customer segment and value proposition, guided by national mentors from Know Hub Chile and international mentors from UC Riverside. The teams then delivered a pitch focused on their differentiating feature, business model, commercial strategy and investment needs for global growth. Following that process, the three winning projects were announced for this program, which is supported by ANID, sponsored by CORFO and backed by Lockheed Martin and CircularTec.

The Drop It team will travel in November to the city of Riverside, California, United States, to carry out this agenda of work and networking with relevant experts and potential partners. This phase culminates with a final pitch by the teams before an international investment fund linked to UC Riverside that provides capital to early-stage startups.

For Nicolás Retamal, this trip represents an opportunity to learn from “a fund with a scientific profile, where all the networks are oriented precisely toward scientific topics, which will help us build our strategy and intellectual property protection. It is very valuable to be recognized within an institution with a product of scientific origin,” concludes the Drop It cofounder.