The Singapore-based market access accelerator will support eight startups that are building groundbreaking solutions for Asia Pacific’s most urgent water needs.
2024 was a record year for extreme weather events in Asia Pacific. Unprecedented heatwaves, typhoons and floods strained our already limited water resources, driving many communities to bear higher costs for safe and reliable water.
Cohort 6 brings together a diverse group of entrepreneurs that are reshaping the way we manage water with technologies for operational efficiency, infrastructure resilience and circularity.
Meet the cohort here:
Network management and operations
Optimising field operations for utilities and industry to ensure safe and sustained water supply
CityBot Technology (Singapore)
- Condition Assessment
- Defect Identification
Citybot Technology combines its defect identification AI software with modular robotic systems to accurately map and identify structural anomalies in both dry and submerged environments.
Utilising more than 10,000km of sewer network data to further train their AI model, they are currently completing a major trial to map drainage conditions in Singapore.
The Challenge: Unpredictable water levels are making it increasingly harder for utilities to use conventional CCTV crawlers to reliably verify their network conditions.
Grid (India)
- Operations Management
- Backend Infrastructure
Grid’s no-code operations platform integrates meter data and workflows for a utility to effectively manage large-scale smart meter installations, scheduled maintenance and field incidents.
Grid is working with commercial customers in both energy and water utilities with multi-project deployments covering over 5 million metering points.
The Challenge: The adoption of smart metering in utilities creates pressures on existing digital infrastructure, requiring new tools to harness data warehousing and analytics.
Hontrel Technologies (Singapore)
- Digital Infrastructure
- Software Platform
Hontrel Technologies’ platform automatically generates Bills of Quantities (BOQ) using AI for quick and accurate costing in project tender preparation according to client specifications.
Hontrel is currently engaging in early trials with customers to test specific features of its AI proposal management and CPQ (configure, pricing, quotation) algorithm.
The Challenge: Manual, time-consuming proposal design leads to added or inaccurate costing during tender bids, affecting the price-competitiveness and value of water infrastructure projects.
Matter (Australia)
- Stormwater Management
- Flood Control
Matter’s system brings together its compact, low-energy IP68 rated sensors that can detect stormwater surges and drain blockages up to 20m deep, with real-time analytics to reduce urban flood occurrences.
Matter has deployed more than 150 sensors in Melbourne, which have demonstrated an 80 per cent reduction in manpower deployed for pit inspections and 7 per cent savings on flood cleanup costs.
The Challenge: Stormwater infrastructure are not cleaned frequently enough due to limited visibility on where blockages exist, leading to more intense drainage overflows.
Transient Detect (Australia)
- Network Management
- Leak Reduction
Transient Detect combines software with long-lasting IoT devices embedded with an algorithm that accurately transmits true transient pressure events for utilities to monitor and predict fatigue in the network.
Transient Detect has completed 5 pilots with water utilities in Australia to date, with 2 more underway in Australia and Asia.
The Challenge: Abrupt pressure changes caused by sudden shifts in demand or supply weaken pipeline infrastructure, leading to pipe bursts in water networks.
Resource Sustainability and Reuse
Increasing safe water supply and reuse through improvements to conventional systems and treatment processes
BioMetallica (Singapore)
- Wastewater Treatment
- Resource Recovery
BioMetallica’s dual-technology solution uses genetically engineered bacteria to recover precious metals from e-waste, catalytic converters and mine tailings, while ensuring near-zero wastewater discharge.
They are currently validating precious metal (Pt, Pd, Rh) recovery efficiency of >95 per cent in a 10L reactor, with plans to scale up its capacity by 5x this year.
The Challenge: Energy-intensive and low resource recovery methods to managing e-waste lead to improper disposal which contaminates water resources.
Cloudwell Water Technologies (Vietnam)
- Drinking Water
- Rainwater Harvesting
Cloudwell has developed an affordable and scalable rainwater harvesting and treatment system that seamlessly integrates with local water grids to diversify a community’s water sources for improved resilience.
Cloudwell’s systems are currently operational in 486 sites across Nepal, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, helping communities access a clean and steady source of water.
The Challenge: Communities reliant on surface water sources are faced with increased contamination from extreme weather events, but struggle with adopting costly water treatment solutions.
Geo Climate Risk Solutions (India)
- Risk Management
- Freshwater Restoration
Geo Climate Risk Solutions’ platform leverages non-invasive tools (satellite imagery, remote sensing data and geospatial analytics) to detect contamination trends in large water bodies and enable proactive interventions.
The software has effectively analyzed 3,500 water bodies across 200 unique environments in India, helping agencies prioritise restoration efforts.
The Challenge: Large water bodies are monitored using manual and time-intensive methods, posing challenges to manage and mitigate worsening pollution.
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