Nothing boosts our optimism like hearing from entrepreneurs pouring their talent and creative energy into businesses that will solve global water challenges. To bring more of these inspiring stories to our innovation community, Current teamed with ChicagoNEXT to launch a new virtual fast-pitch series. These showcase events give entrepreneurs a chance to share the problem they’re working to solve and use-cases for their solution, and field questions from a diverse audience.
Our first showcase featured entrepreneurs from around the country building businesses that apply to local water challenges here in Illinois:
- Storm Sensor has developed a sensor network that allows for sewershed-wide deployment at a fraction of the traditional cost. Their technology allows for the management of flooding and runoff during extreme weather events, using real-time alerts and long-term tracking.
- BlueConduit is a water infrastructure analytics consulting company that uses data and machine learning to help cities conduct lead service line inventories and removal. They were on the front lines of the Flint, Michigan crisis, helping to save the city tens of millions of dollars and accelerating the removal of hazardous infrastructure.
- Electro Scan represents a new framework in condition assessment and evaluation. Their sewer and water leak detection products integrate with their cloud applications to revolutionize how consumers collect and prioritize data for repair and rehabilitation projects.
Our second event focused on Illinois’ Blue Economy, home-grown entrepreneurs working to solve a range of water challenges here and around the world:
- Ensaras’ work is focused at the intersection of wastewater and AI. They optimize treatment processes and reduce energy consumption at wastewater plants using machine learning motivated by cloud-based analytics to exceed operational objectives.
- Varuna has created a product that can optimize small to medium utilities to gain total visibility, control and compliance. Their product was developed to answer the needs of the vast majority of utilities to make management more effective. Varuna aims to gain visibility into distribution systems, understand contaminant levels and asset shocks, and gain control over the system through the optimal deployment of resources and assets.
- Aquamox looks to help millions of people by revolutionizing the infection prevention industry. By combining expertise in diamond-based electrochemistry with the power of ozone, Aquamox creates powerful chemical-free, water-based sanitizing solutions for the prevention of infections in athletic environments, food industry, healthcare, residential, and home appliances.
- Nano Gas Technologies is a platform technology company that uses patented nanobubble tech to reduce costs and increase profits across multiple industries by doing everything from improving water treatment and soil remediation to enhancing oil recovery and chemical contaminant removal. Their nanobubbles are not made from traditional cavitation, membranes, ceramic discs or sonication methods, which makes their bubbles smaller, more capable and allows them to stay in solutions for months, versus shorter periods of time.
