As a student at the University of Minnesota, Max Minakov’s entrepreneurial career blossomed when he invented something his younger self would appreciate: A snow-shoveling robot.
“I really, really hated shoveling snow,” he said in a blog post for the university. “As a kid, you’re either doing it after school or you’re getting up at 5 a.m. to do it, which I had a hard time doing. I knew there had to be something easier.”
During his educational career, Minakov founded a startup called Nivoso, which means “snowy” in Latin. The company touts its game-changing product: a self-activating snow-clearing robot for driveways and sidewalks.
Minakov calls it a “Roomba for snow.”
The robot is completely autonomous and keeps surfaces safe and accessible without human intervention — well, except for the monitoring of the job from inside the comfort and warmth of one’s home.
It’s the kind of futuristic product Midwesterners dream of — especially as heavy snowfall sweeps the nation.
So it’s no surprise that Minakov’s invention was met with praise. In 2023, he was named the winner of the Student Division in the Minnesota Cup, a startup competition that earned him $26,000 in seed funding.
And this cold weather season, the product is finally available for residential use.
The device itself comes with a hefty $12,000 price tag, but Nivoso is targeting large snow-clearing companies that could use the robot as a supplement to their main operations.
According to Nivoso’s website, the base model comes with a monitor that can be mounted into a truck cabin, with a long-range remote controller to be manually operated and monitored through a live stream in a snow plow truck.
Minakov also noted that he was working with large senior living facilities to pilot the product, as his invention is not just for convenience but for the safety and well-being of people who cannot physically clear their area.
“I hope every nursing home and other zero-tolerance facility in the country will have their sidewalks consistently cleared by Nivoso robots during every snowstorm,” he told the University of Minnesota in December of 2023.
But ultimately, he hopes that these first steps into commercial success will bring this tool to more people who could use the assist.
“I want people to see Nivoso robots at the hardware store right next to a snow blower,” he added.
In the meantime, anyone in the Twin Cities can tap Nivoso in for their snow removal needs this winter by leasing the device during inclement weather.
“By using advanced GPS and an array of sensors, Nivoso is capable of keeping sidewalks safe and accessible via teleoperated or autonomous robots (BETA) at hospitals, senior living facilities, universities, and more,” the company’s website shares.
For residential and commercial property owners who are unable to shovel, Nivoso’s services might give them ease, accessibility, and freedom this season.
“Having something like this offered for them [those unable to shovel] could save not only just a lot of time,” Minakov told CBS News, “but also just a lot of hassle and concerns that people have going into the winter season.”
Header image courtesy of Nivoso
