In addition to CHF 100’000 from investors, Openversum has obtained a REPIC Roll Out project grant of CHF 500’000 to advance its technology over two years. This achievement marks the startup’s start into the industrial scale up phase as it nears its vision to make clean drinking water technologies accessible.
By combining innovative Swiss membrane science with a digitized micro-franchising ecosystem, Zurich-based startup Openversum seeks to make an impact on the lives of millions of people without access to clean drinking water. The startup developed an all-in-one water drinking filter that removed up to 99.99999 percent impurities such as bacteria, heavy metals and micropollutant from the water. Unlike traditional water treatment approaches, Openversum offers energy-free and affordable household-level water filters, manufactured, and distributed locally by trained local entrepreneurs, hence creating jobs, while tackling the challenges associated with poor water quality.
Starting off in Colombia, has obtained fresh capital of CHF 100’000 from Wartmann Futura AG and business angel Michael Hoppe. This investment will fuel the ground operations in Colombia, enabling the company to kickstart the industrial production of our filters to reach a monthly capacity of up to 30,000 filters. This scale up phase will set the stage for expanding into further countries, including Peru and the rest of Latin America as well as in Uganda, where a pilot project is currently ongoing in collaboration with Get Water Uganda and GIZ to deliver 5000 filters by the end of 2024.
In addition, this investment allows the ETH spinoff to reach the contribution that was needed to benefit from the REPIC rollout project grant of CHF 500'000 over two years to facilitate market entry. REPIC, an interdepartmental platform of Federal Offices SECO, SDC, FOEN, and SFOE, offers project-based funding supporting up to 50% of project costs. This initiative aids research and impact startups focused on emerging settings to establish solid market proof for scaling. Having met the criterion, Openversum received the REPIC grant, titled REPIC Roll Out.
“Receiving this grant is a great step forward for Openversum. Our recent baseline study revealed that 81% of the households we visited consumed water contaminated with faecal matter. With this funding, our team can continue bridging the gap between cutting-edge Swiss technology and tangible impact in emerging communities, positively transforming lives on a larger scale,” said Laura Stocco, co-founder of Openversum.
In preparation for the planned financing round in early 2025, Openversum is still looking for CHF 150'000 this year to advance on their solvent-free membrane manufacturing process.
(RAN)
Please login or sign up to comment.
Commenting guidelines