EnerTech's Purifier Provides Clean Water
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
The New Purifier Powered by Solar Energy GivesDrinkable Water for The Poorest in India
If this sounds like a fairytale, keep reading. Because several start-ups are beginning to tackle problems relating to water. From too much (e.g. waterlogging) to too little. One such innovation is Swajal, which uses solar energy to purify drinking water at an affordable rate.
Search for Funds "Water is the most basic resource that all of us share. We want it to be free for everyone," says Vibha Tripathi, one of the co-founders of Saurya EnerTech. She spun off Swajal as a fully owned subsidiary in 2013. The start-up has recently set up five prototypes of its solar-powered water purifier and is ready to take the machine to market.
The Swajal machine is designed with the capability of nine stages of filtration and installed with a proprietary GSM software that continuously monitors whether the machine is working at its installation point. "We are still working on the software to see if it can monitor water purity remotely," says Tripathi.
She is looking for funding for the venture. "We are asking for $1.2 million to scale up operations," she says and is willing to divest 20-25% of Swajal's equity for that investment. "We would use this money for R&D, marketing, hiring more people — basically scaling up the venture," she adds
Tripathi, a physicist and PhD from IIT Kanpur set up Saurya in 2009 with other IIT engineers and Swajal four years later with co-founder Advait Kumar, who has just completed his electrical engineering from Penn State University. Kumar has previously cofounded online education portal MindKART and Nirbhaya Urja, a social venture for lighting application.
Swajal also has on board as advisor the rather colourful personality of Danny Kennedy, California-based clean-tech entrepreneur, environmental activist and co-founder of solar company Sungevity. It is trying to find greater international leverage through the American company and plans are in the offing to take this technology to Africa, though Tripathi is quick to clarify that nothing has been signed and sealed as yet.
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