Why did we invest in Wayout?
Climentum leads 🇸🇪 Wayout €6M Series A to offset the need for bottled water
Let’s start with the problem.
Plastic bottles are a major environmental problem. They are not biodegradable, meaning they do not decompose naturally and can take hundreds of years to break down.
Additionally, producing plastic bottles requires the use of fossil fuels (17 million barrels of oil per year), contributing to climate change. It also generates other types of pollution, such as air and water pollution.
The production process requires chemicals such as benzene, toluene, styrene, and phthalates. Such chemicals have been linked to a host of reproductive, immune, and neurological disorders, including gestational diabetes, ADHD, fertility issues, liver disease in children, asthma, and an increased risk of breast cancer.
Horrifying.
A study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated that plastic bottles could account for up to 22% of all microplastics in the ocean. Scientists actually think that the ocean contains 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics. There are 66 times more plastic bottles than people in the world.
Stomach-churning.
And let’s not forget the 800-pound gorilla.
Transportation of plastic bottles also generates additional CO2 emissions. On average, every person consumes more than 100 liters of bottled water per year. This involves more than 40,000 trucks, distributing the water on a weekly basis — not to mention planes and cargo ships.
Revolting.
The climate footprint of producing and distributing plastic bottles is enormous and clearly UNSUSTAINABLE.
What’s the solution?
To address this problem, individuals can reduce their use of plastic bottles by using reusable water bottles, and governments and companies can implement recycling programs and promote the use of more sustainable packaging materials.
But anyone who’s been to an emerging country recently will tell you that it ain’t happening soon…
So what’s the real solution?
Localizing water production.
Wayout produces container-sized water treatment facilities that turn local dirty waters into safely drinkable water.
The containerized solution, patented and developed together with partners such as Alfa Laval, Siemens, and Ericsson, is easy to install and operate and has a per unit expected lifetime of 30 years.
A single Wayout system can supply 3,000 people with clean and safe daily drinking and cooking water with zero byproducts while helping to eliminate the use of approximately 6.5 million plastic bottles and prevent the release of over 500 tons of CO₂ per year.
The unique hardware is coupled with unique software, to continuously measure and store data on water purity in a digital chip.
Through a combination of edge and cloud-based structures, the container and its parts communicate essential information and consumption data to the user and operator, allowing users to monitor their water drinking habits and the purity of the water consumed.
“Wayout’s business concept of producing water locally means dealing with several sustainability challenges at once. We have a 360-degree approach to water supply. It is one of our success factors.” says Ulf Stenerhag, CEO of Wayout International.
They have a fully vertically integrated solution from cleaning water to supplying consumers. Each unit can clean anything from salt water to industrial wastewater. They purify it down to pure H₂O and then add minerals to make it healthy drinking water.
With the Wayout system, there is a guarantee that the water has not been tampered with, which is an essential criterion in order to enable consumer behavior change.
Climentum is leading Wayout’s €6M Series A and will seat on the board to help steer the wheel, and ensure the company meets its strong impact objectives and Article 9 fund requirements.
The round also involved foodtech investor Re:Food, US-based investor Raiven Capital as well as existing investors.
At Climentum, we are also very fond of the “Water as a Service” business model in conjunction with the robustness of the product, as these are two factors that will enable a successful and profitable roll-out at a large scale.
Let’s make plastic bottles say goodbye to the world!
Team Climentum
