Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for smart cities. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 5 promising water management startups.
Heat Map: 5 Top Water Management Startups
Using our StartUs Insights Platform, covering 1.116.000+ startups & emerging companies, we looked at innovation in the field of water management. For this research, we identified 379 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies are chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & emerging companies developing innovative water management solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 379 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
DrizzleX – Smart Water Metering
Acute seasonal water shortages, along with the different ways in which people misuse or overuse water, leads to a shift in thinking about water being a free resource. To add, water wasted from leaking pipes exacerbates the problem of accounting for water in residential and commercial buildings, as well as for industrial water consumption and discharge. Smart water meters use the internet of things (IoT) sensors to accurately detect leaks and later alert users about it.
Israeli startup DrizzleX provides smart water metering solutions for residential buildings that lack individual apartment meters. The startup’s FlowDx smart water sensors first collect data about individual water consumption and send it to a cloud platform. These sensors utilize artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to accurately identify water misuse and leaks. Later, property managers and individual consumers manage their water sources and flow using the startup’s dashboard or smartphone application. Drizzle’s solutions enable significant reductions in property expenses and water bills.
Smart Water Management Platform (SWAMP) – Precision Irrigation
Being such a vital resource for all living things on our planet, shortages of water due to natural or human-induced events tend to have an outsized impact on some industries. The agriculture sector, especially, faces several challenges related to water, ranging from mismanagement to a lack of availability of water. Emerging AgriTech companies work to develop comprehensive IoT-based solutions to implement precision farming techniques.
Brazillian startup SWAMP offers an IoT-based smart precision irrigation system. The startup optimizes and manages the distribution of water from its source using various channels, including pipes and canals. At the farm-level, SWAMP’s precision irrigation system allows for real-time monitoring of water consumption as well. This solution reduces the wastage of water arising from irrigation while providing crops with ideal conditions for growth. Currently, SWAMP is piloting a number of precision irrigation projects in Spain, Italy, and Brazil.
SCUBIC – AI-Powered Water Supply Management
The quickly proliferating combination of employing IoT sensors and running machine learning algorithms on the data collected impacts numerous sectors. Industrial companies and utility providers, who already collect several data points across various industrial processes, particularly require water at some, or various stages of the manufacturing or energy generation process. AI-based decision support tools help such companies reduce costs, in addition to improving resource utilization and water storage.
Portuguese startup SCUBIC develops digital platforms for the smart management of water supply networks. SCUBIC’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform connects with the water utility data systems, such as smart sensors, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), Telemetry, and geographic information system (GIS), centralizing all the operation data in one platform. Together with AI algorithms, digital twin technology, energy data, and meteorology, the startup helps predict future water demand, detect water consumption patterns to optimize various processes.
HydroIQ – Virtual Water Network Operator (VWNO)
Global concerns over growing water inequality, and its impact on the everyday lives of people, compels startups and big companies alike to develop data-driven solutions. Water distribution is a key component of the water supply network and its related decision making is often ignorant of real-world conditions. Moreover, computer-aided designs and advanced simulation tools empower water utility providers to identify weaknesses in the supply network.
Kenyan startup HydroIQ utilizes advanced analytics, predictive maintenance, and connected IoT devices to virtualize physical water infrastructure. HydroIQ SmartGrid integrates metering, pressure, level, and quality monitoring, for households, property managers, utilities, and water suppliers. The startup also monitors water consumption trends with a variety of sensors in a virtual platform for industrial and commercial entities. This solution provides real-time data, analytics, and reports to meet various sustainability and regulatory requirements.
Phyn – Smart Water Leak Detector
Water losses due to leaks in pipes and fittings significantly contribute to unnecessary water shortages, over the long term. As it happens, many such leakages go undetected for a prolonged period of time. This further disrupts the water supply by damaging pipes. In some cases, pipes may face too much pressure and burst in adverse conditions. Startups are creating various innovative solutions to help water consumers better manage and fix the sources of water waste.
The US-based startup Phyn is developing its eponymous smart water leak detection and fixture-level monitoring solution. Phyn’s proprietary leak detection technology utilizes high-definition ultrasonic sensors to sample the pressure in plumbing systems 240 times per second. This produces a comprehensive view of the unique signatures of each fixture in the plumbing. Over time, Phyn learns from these fixture profiles and activates an auto-shutoff feature to stop water flow in case of a leak.
What About The Other 374 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence that enables you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 water management solutions showcased above are promising examples out of 379 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
