Water can be produced from air through a plug-and-play system: Airowater

We have created a plug-and-play machine that uses one-of-a-kind, reliable and adaptable technology, which creates water from the humidity in the air, giving fresh, bacteria-free and pure drinking water. The ozonation technology destroys all types of microorganisms instantly and disinfects, oxidizes and deodorizes and leaves better taste for water.

Moreover, the water produced is completely free from contaminants like pesticides and heavy metals, generally present in ground water supplied through age-old pipelines. And once the water is collected it is stored in stainless steel tanks. So, the water which customers get ultimately is completely free of contamination, plastics, free of chemical problems, heavy metals, as well as bacteria and viruses.

How does it ensure purity and how does it compare with RO (reverse osmosis) and other filtration technologies?

Present-day solutions do not address the issue of chemical and pesticide contamination in water. Airowater is one of the purest form of drinking water as it does not contain any heavy metals, bacteria or viruses. The water generated by this process goes through a four-step filtration process for purification, which includes an air filter, water dust filter, water filter and ozone generator.

The specially formulated filtration process ensures that water is untouched by pollution and as fresh as possible. By using Airowater our ground water depletion is stopped as it’s not dependent on water. It generates its own drinking water whereas for RO there is the need of supply of water with a pressure and water connection is required.

Also in RO, 70-80 percent water is wasted in process whereas there is no wastage of water in our machines. RO also cannot remove the chemicals and the pesticides present in water.  As far as bottled water is concerned, in many cases it is filtered city water being processed in a manufacturing plant. Other bottled water is ‘spring’ water and there are no guarantees that it is truly pure and free from any contamination.

What’s the market opportunity for AWGs in India? What is the overall market size? 

Within the next decade, India is expected to have double the water demand compared to supply.  India also ranks 13 among the 17 worst affected countries in terms of water crisis. As per Niti Aayog reports 21 major cities of India will be out of water by next year. Cape Town and Chennai is already on Zero day.

The government, under its ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’ has also underlined the need for freshwater for each and every household. This confirms the need for solutions such as Airowater which can solve problems of water scarcity, bad quality water and sustainability. It’s going to be a huge market in the coming years. The product demand in India is anticipated to reach USD 300 million by 2027 owing to the rapid industrial growth coupled with increasing construction and manufacturing activities in the country.

What kind of presence do you have in the country? What’s the retail format? What kind of after-sales network do you have? 

Since we are based out of Mumbai, so we started with Mumbai distribution with a direct sale model and our focus was always south market because both the water availability is not there and the solution is ideal because it’s a humid place. We have base of more than 200 customers who are serviced through our service networks.

We have been approved in GEN which is a Government e-Market Place where common user goods and services can be procured. Specifically for us they have opened a separate segment AWG, we got approval few days back and it is now uploaded on the site, we are available on the government’s water website.

We utilise our in-house business development team and channel partners to reach our target customers. We have a three-tier distribution system, which includes modern trade channels, online trade and its own direct sales force.

Currently we have over 42 distributors across India which included Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Kolkata to provide unparalleled experience to our customers. We also have dedicated distributor in Singapore and Africa which also promotes our products. We also plan to expand and appoint dealers in other parts of the country.

How has been the demand in the Indian market? How many machines have you sold so far and what’s the target in next three years?

We have created is a base where we have been approved by most of the Government to private agencies and companies. We are seeing good demand from cities like Chennai which is completely running out of water and is not going to improve for next 10-15 years. In Bengaluru too poor water management have led to falling groundwater levels and filth-frothed lakes. We are tapping a resource which is not tapped by anybody and we have made it commercially viable too.

As of today, we have active 200 installations out of which 150 of them are retailers. Demand is expected to be very high and we are looking forward to anywhere between 100 to 150 crores sales and growing multifold.

As soon as the technology becomes more acceptable to customers and awareness about our machine grows, we expect to grow faster. We are just looking at the southern part as well as the Costal line right now, to do the marketing and we are looking at somewhere around 20,000 machines to be sold next year.

Which are the key regions contributing to the demand? What are your further expansion plans?

In India, markets like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, North East and West Bengal are the adopters of our technology. We export our machines to Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, Singapore & Africa. Our target industries are - retail – residence and small offices—where there is water shortage and for people who wants access to pure drinking water, corporates – banks, IT and manufacturing setups, defence, health centres, educational institutes, government departments, hotels and restaurants.

We are currently only operating in Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore. We do have a distributor in Goa, as well as in Kerala. Our own space is based out of the cities, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. We have a great expansion plan coming this year.

Who are some of your customers from the corporate segment? What’s the value for them in using AWG’s?

We cater to both government as well as non-government institutes. Today most of the corporates are using 20 litre packed water bottle and average cost of that bottle is like Rs 5 per litre. By installing this machine, the average cost is around Rs 2.5 per litre.

The Standard Chartered Building in Fort area in Mumbai was using around 800 hundred litres a day water consumption with the packed bottle. We have installed two machines of 500 litres and they have completely stopped the usage of plastic bottles in the office.

The whole office has converted into Airowater and we have given them a solution where a water dispenser has been installed at every floor so they get hot water, cold water and normal water on each floor.

Similarly, we have installed machines at the Titan factory in Thrissur, which is part of Tata Group. We have even installed machines in the Aditya Birla factory in Gujarat. On the government side, we have given it to defence, Navy, ONGC, BPCL and everyone have acknowledged this technology.

What are the biggest challenges? Who are your competitors?

The challenges are in terms of humidity. We cannot provide the solutions to states like Rajasthan and Delhi as the machine only works in high humidity place.

Maithri in South of India and Akvo in Kolkata are the two parties who are in the similar space, however they are not the manufacturers. Our strength does not only lie in selling it, but also in manufacturing and designing the machines.

Any plans for raising funds?

We have pitched to lots of PE funds and sustainable funds and they are showing interest. We have a made a fund raising pitch of almost USD 20 million that needs to be raised for R&D expenditure, to increase our production capacity as well as for sales and marketing.

What are the certifications and patents that the company holds?

Airowater owns the patent rights for the manufacturing of Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) using the Air2Water technology. We have three Indian and six US patents for the Air2Water Patent for generating water from air and purifying the same (licensed by Worldwide Water LLC). The patents owned by Air2Water contain 156 claims on various technologies including re-circulation, UV & Ozone sterilization and air filtration. Additionally, Airowater has been accredited and approved by leading labs like Equinox Labs, Envirocare Labs, NABL and Geo Chem.