IoT-based water tech start-up bags 2 mn dollar in seed funding

GoFrugal, Shyam Shekar from iThought, and Brigade Enterprises Ltd. led the round. Other leading investors included Vibhu Natarajan, Director at Grotech Landscapes, Rajagopal S from Entrust, Joydeep Ponugoti from Manbhum Constructions and PromodKumar who are industry experts in the real estate technology and consumer industries.

This capital infusion will be used predominantly to strengthen its IoT enabled product portfolio, scale its presence in India. The company also plans to invest in recruitment and hopes to double its employee base in the next 6-months for R&D and Sales and Marketing.

Five engineers - Vijay Krishna, Mohamed Mohideen, Abilash Haridass, Sundeep Donthamshetty and Selvakumar AB run WEGoT and they aim to support the adoption of sustainable water use practices at residential and commercial properties using technology. WEGoT’s sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT) device and a software platform VenAqua, helps to reduce the demand for water by more than 50 per cent by tracking real time flow.

The granular data collected from various installations across residential and commercial buildings are analysed and the insights are shared with the end-users on a mobile app. As part of the process, people become more accountable and decrease their consumption by making real-time decisions. The company’s business model is innovative and has led to widespread adoption in the last couple of years. The solution is subscription based, wherein the company gives the product free and users pay nominal monthly fee of Rs 149 (residential)/20 paise per sq ft (commercial) apart from installation charges.

“Everywhere around us, we see billboards and messages to save water, but nobody gives you an idea of where to start – a quantifiable and actionable way to do so. This is because we do not have access or insight to the right data to take the next step”, said Vijay Krishna, CEO and Co –Founder, WEGoT.