Imagine H2O Water Gala Honors its 2018 Accelerator Companies
Imagine H2O showcased its 2018 accelerator companies last night at the organization’s 9th annual Water Gala, an event featuring over 400 industry leaders. From a global field of 200 applicants, Imagine H2O selected 12 emerging water technology businesses to advance to its 2018 accelerator. Evaluated on the basis of commercial viability and impact on sustainable water resource management, Imagine H2O’s 2018 accelerator companies represent a diverse range of scalable solutions to global water challenges — from low-cost industrial wastewater treatment to flood risk data and analytics.
Osmo Systems was honored as the 2018 winner with its water quality sensing and monitoring solution that aims to advance sustainable aquaculture. The company’s optical sensors are currently being deployed across Asia, the US and Latin America helping shrimp farmers gather 200 times more data points daily at the same price they are paying today for manual testing. While the world’s wild fish stocks face increasing pressures, Osmo Systems empowers farmers to boost yields, reduce mortalities, improve productivity and protect coastal ecosystem health.
Two runners-up were also recognized at the Water Gala. eWATERpay is a prepaid mobile technology that enables smart metering for communal taps in emerging markets. To date, eWATERpay has sold 60 million liters of water to 20,000 people across Tanzania and the Gambia. Fracta is an AI platform for water distribution monitoring and condition assessment that is helping American utilities reduce water loss and save costs on repair and replacement.
As members of Imagine H2O’s 2018 accelerator, these three companies along with 9 finalists will benefit throughout the year from cash awards, pilot support, mentorship and industry and customer connections.
The 12 companies in Imagine H2O’s 2018 accelerator include the following:
Aquam Technologies: Wastewater treatment technology that provides onsite treatment, direct electricity production, and enables water reuse in a small portable footprint
change:WATER Labs: Portable waterless toilet for homes without power or plumbing — eliminating over 95% of daily sewage volumes at low cost with low maintenance requirements
Cloud to Street: Remote sensing dashboard and risk flood analytics SaaS to enable flood insurance for the 90% of the developing world that is currently uninsured against catastrophe.
CustoMem: Novel bio-based adsorbent materials that remove the most harmful pollutants from industrial wastewater, allowing customers to meet stringent regulations and prevent pollution of drinking water supplies
H2nanO: Reusable, light-activated nanotechnology for destruction of hard-to-degrade chemicals to improve industrial wastewater
IntelliFlux Controls: Adaptive control software utilizing AI to improve the performance and efficiency of water treatment plants
Pipeguard Robotics: Small-scale robots for early detection and pinpointing leaks in water distribution networks using a special suction force sensor
Water Pigeon: Fast and simple solution for automated water meter reading without replacing meters or building a wireless network
Sentry Water Technologies (Honorable Mention): Bio-electrode wastewater sensor technology that provides real-time monitoring of microbial communities in wastewater systems
eWATERpay (Runner-up): Prepaid mobile technology that enables smart water metering and remote monitoring to improve service reliability and revenue collection for communal taps in emerging markets
Fracta (Runner-up): SaaS solution using AI to evaluate the condition of drinking water distribution mains faster and cheaper than current assessment methods
Osmo Systems (Winner): Proprietary, low-cost water quality sensors and dashboard that enables continuous monitoring in shrimp farms to reduce mortalities and optimize feeding in order to drive higher, more predictable yields
