A shell company that has no liabilities or other claims against it as perceived by an operating business contemplating merging with it. Companies seeking to go public through a reverse merger are usually keen to locate clean shells. A clean shell is a corporate structure that meets the requirements of stock exchanges. In principle, clean shells are formed for the sole purpose of being sold to operating business seeking to go public via indirect ways (i.e., not through DPOs or IPOs).

Like typical shells, clean shells usually have no operating history and no public trading.