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How 4 Milwaukee startups are finding their niche in the multibillion-dollar water industry
Global Water Center
Milwaukee is known throughout the world as a global hub for water technology.
Milwaukee is the headquarters of the Global Water Center, a facility operated by The Water Council, and the Milwaukee area’s water industry is a $10.5 billion market, according to Milwaukee 7, the region’s economic development organization. The water industry supports 20,000 jobs in the Milwaukee region and accounts for 4 percent of the total world water business, Milwaukee 7 states.
On Wednesday, local investors and companies looking to tap into that technology heard from four emerging startups working out of the Global Water Center in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood at the latest Emerge event by Startup Milwaukee. The technology developed by these startups cover sensory equipment for monitoring groundwater, air-powered bubble mixers, wastewater treatment technology and client-targeting technology for water corporations.
WellnTel Inc.
Ranked by The Tech Tribune as one of the nine best tech startups in Milwaukee, this company develops hardware and software that measures groundwater in wells in real time. The company’s main target base includes government agencies and departments that have already invested dollars and research into groundwater, said co-founder and CEO Marian Singer, but is also doing business with farmers and agricultural businesses. The U.S. Geological Survey is one of its customers, she said. California is one of its main territories for business, given the need of vineyards there for groundwater. WellnTel is currently raising $500,000 and is anticipating roughly $500,000 in revenue this year. Singer expects the company will increase revenue to $2 million by the end of 2019.
Rapid Radicals Technology
RRT built a wastewater treatment system that can treat sewer water in less than an hour, said founder and CEO Paige Peters. Most treatment systems on the market take eight hours, she said. The company’s end-of-pipe treatment solution moves wastewater through a chemically enhanced conveyance system and safely back into lakes and rivers. RRT explains it best here. The company, which launched in 2016, is currently securing funds for pilot testing. The wastewater treatment market is $30 billion across 38 U.S. cities, Peters said.
WatrHub
With offices in Toronto and Milwaukee, WatrHub built an artificial intelligence-based platform that predicts what water projects are coming online. The company’s technology pulls public documents from government departments regarding water treatment, helping water companies get a jump on potential contracts up to two years before they go to the bidding process. WatrHub has so far collected 500 million public filings, said chief product officer Sunit Mohindroo, a former techie at Apple and Microsoft. Those filings include budgets, agendas, capital plans, permits and minutes from council and committee meetings. Launched in 2012, WatrHub has 70 clients.
Pulsed Burst Systems
Pulsed Burst Systems makes a product called the MegaBubble, a low pressure, air-powered device that releases large bubbles into bodies of water, treating the water. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District installed MegaBubble mixers at its Oak Creek facility in 2015 and continues to use those devices there. The product works like a reverse toilet, explained chief operating officer Charles Otis, who said the mixer fills slowly and purges gas all at once. The mixer can also work as a pump, he said. Pulsed Burst Systems acquired the patent for the device in 2016 and re-patented it this year.
Read the original article from Milwaukee Business Journal here.