Imagine H2O Asia Showcases its First Cohort at Demo Day in Singapore

Demo Day marked the end of Imagine H2O Asia’s Water Innovation Week Singapore, the accelerator’s kick-off bootcamp designed to equip water entrepreneurs with the resources to scale their businesses in Southeast Asia

Imagine H2O Asia’s eight 2019 accelerator companies, selected from a global field of 110 startups, are reimagining how businesses, cities and communities across Southeast Asia treat, monitor and manage their water. From early detection of heavy metals in urban sewer systems to AI-driven operational intelligence for industrial treatment plants, Imagine H2O Asia’s cohort represents a diverse range of solutions to address the region’s water resource challenges.

In collaboration with Founding Partners Enterprise Singapore, SUEZ and Moya Holdings Asia Limited, Imagine H2O Asia celebrated these innovators last week at Demo Day, an event featuring over 150 industry executives, entrepreneurs and investors in attendance from across Singapore’s water ecosystem. Demo Day, a pitch showcase and networking event, marked the end of Imagine H2O Asia’s Water Innovation Week hosted at Enterprise Singapore and PUB’s Singapore Water Exchange.

Water Innovation Week provided participants with insights to improve startup decision making and vet new pathways to customers in Southeast Asia. Over the course of five days, Imagine H2O Asia startups engaged with industry insiders in a series of curated training sessions and attended over 100 meetings with Singapore-based customers and investors.

Imagine H2O Asia’s Advisory Council selected Pani Energy as the winner of the Imagine H2O Asia Deployment Award, a S$25k prize to support a pilot in Singapore or the region. MicroHAOPs received an honorable mention as a runner-up. All Imagine H2O Asia startups may be eligible for future StartupSG Awards and the cohort will reconvene at Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) in November 2019.

The eight companies in Imagine H2O Asia’s 2019 Accelerator include:

EKO GEA (Slovenia): Novel, wholly anaerobic waste-to-water treatment solution for the food and beverage industry that eliminates organic waste and reduces the cost and footprint of currently-available treatment systems

EnvironSens (Singapore): IOT-enabled, real-time water toxicity sensor for early warning detection of illegal discharge to protect sewer networks from inflow of heavy metals including cyanide

MicroHAOPs (Seattle, WA): Cost-effective filtration technology that removes phosphorus from sewage in order to help cities meet stricter regulations and protect water bodies from toxic algae

Pani Energy (Canada/India): Operational intelligence platform designed to increase efficiencies and reduce operational expenditures by up to 30% for desalination and wastewater treatment infrastructure

Puraffinity (UK — Formerly Customem)*: Engineered bio-based adsorbent materials for highly toxic micropollutant capture and removal, with an initial focus on PFAS*(Alumni Participant)

SpaceAge Labs (Singapore): Low-power, fast-to-deploy wireless technologies with machine learning applications that enable cost-effective monitoring and maintenance of remote water assets

StormHarvester (UK): Smart monitoring and control of drainage networks using rainfall prediction and machine learning tools to optimize wastewater network performance as well as reduce combined sewer overflows

Veracet (Berkeley, CA): Rapid DNA fingerprinting technology and analytics platform that empowers utilities and businesses to identify the source of microbial contamination in a water source

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