The start-up company has set itself the goal of minimizing water losses and saving energy at the same time through its measuring system. Business angel investor Thomas Clemens explains how and why he also relies on GWP.

 

Mr. Clemens, what does Pydro GmbH do?

Clemens: Our vision is “preserving water”, which means that we care about the protection of the resource water.

According to the UN, water scarcity will be one of the biggest problems of mankind in the next decade. We currently have 4 billion people who are threatened by water scarcity for at least one month a year and the problem will get worse. At the same time, water suppliers are losing on average 30 percent of their precious resource. This is the issue we want to address.

The utilities would like to have more data from their network. But the problem is the power supply: In the widely distributed water networks you need many sensors, the sensors need energy and the energy is often not available. That’s why we have developed a measuring system that can be used to measure data for pressure, flow and temperature. At the same time the system supplies itself with energy.

How is the environment for start-ups in the water sector? Is it difficult to gain a foothold?

Clemens: No, in principle the state or the Federal Ministry of Economics have been supporting start-ups for several years. Especially when it comes to clean technology, and that includes water, or critical infrastructures, the state provides a lot of information. The VKU also has the platform KommunalDigital, which also provides very good support. So the environment is actually quite good for start-ups in the water sector.

In which markets are you already active and which new ones would be of interest for you?

Clemens: Germany is our home market, even though Germany is the international leader in water loss with eight percent. That’s why we also look at other countries, and in Europe England and France stand out in particular. Both have a water loss of well over 20 percent, almost three times as much as in Germany. This problem is on the agenda there every day. In principle, however, the entire EU is interesting, but so is the Middle East. Water loss there may not be as high, but water as a resource is extremely expensive.

Which topics and which working groups are interesting for you?

Clemens: The trigger for us was actually IFAT. The presence of GWP is super important for us. As a small start-up, it is very difficult to have a reasonably attractive booth. Getting people to the booth is even more difficult. That’s why this was already an important reason to join GWP, but not the only one. Of the working groups, the topic “Water 4.0” of course covers exactly what we do. We want to use our data in Germany to drive digitisation forward

What do you expect from GWP?

Clemens: Contact with member companies whose solutions are complementary to our business. Cooperation partnerships are also important for us. We are already working with a GWP member that has been with us for a long time and stands for engineering in the water network. They need data for their software or for their evaluation. Therefore, they are willing to cooperate with us.

We hope that at GWP we can especially contribute to trips and projects and that we can enable many water utilities to collect data and get more information about their network.

 

Contact

Thomas Clemens
Pydro GmbH
tc@pydro.com
https://www.pydro.com