Caring for water: 19 startups report progress after support programs

19 startup programs related to caring for water presented their progress on Demo Day, which was organized by HEINEKEN Green Challenge and incMTY, the Tec de Monterrey entrepreneurship fair.

At the HEINEKEN facilities in the city of Monterrey, these projects showed how they had developed after going through an acceleration program.

The startups came from Jalisco, Querétaro, Nuevo León, Tlaxcala, Sinaloa, Veracruz, State of Mexico, Yucatán, Puebla, Mexico City, and Hidalgo.

Thomas Hogg, Executive Director of incMTY, spoke about the importance of achieving synergy with companies to promote social entrepreneurship.

 

 

“We’d like to thank HEINEKEN for being great partners. I think this is one of the most important initiatives in the country. It’s great example of how a challenge boosts Mexican talent, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

“Today, we’re going to see their great innovations. Mexico needs these projects to make the economy grow, and we’re going to be attempting to make this project bigger and more open in future, as well as repeat it in other sectors and industries,” he said.

Claudia de la Vega, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at HEINEKEN, was in charge of welcoming the entrepreneurs.

“We’re here today to celebrate entrepreneurship, the work that they’ve been doing. The country needs talent like yours, with your creativity. We’ve been working for more than six years with incMTY to become agents of change.

“Each year, we work according to different guidelines; this latest edition is about caring for and preserving water,” she said.

At the end of the project presentations, the entrepreneurs had time to network and continue discussing their startups in order to find investors.

 

“It’s a great example of how a challenge boosts Mexican talent, innovation, and entrepreneurship.” - Thomas Hogg, Executive Director of incMTY

 

 

 

Find out about the startups

In total, 19 projects were presented. CONECTA gives you the details about each of these startups.

 

1. Aqua et terra: Reducing consumption in agriculture

This is a company dedicated to perfecting and developing technologies focused on combating the water and food crisis in Mexico.

Their technology focuses on reducing the use of water in agriculture from three liters to one liter. They said that they have obtained three patents and have helped to increase the efficiency of irrigation by 30 percent in Aguascalientes.

 

2. Aquabotics: Analyzing waste in water

This is a firm dedicated to analyzing and sampling water in real time. By scanning water quality, they can help companies find out whether their waste meets official Mexican standards.

As current methods are slow and costly, they propose dynamic environmental monitoring that can analyze water and detect hazards promptly.

 

3. Aquantum: Project financing

This is a project designed to create and issue bonds specifically designed to finance water projects.

What they propose is developing a platform on which anyone can purchase a water bond, which makes companies socially responsible and involves society itself, as participating helps people see how water is used.

 

 

 

4. Aquox-Cicy: Wastewater treatment

This is domestic wastewater treatment through a disruptive technology that transforms the organic matter present in wastewater into energy and water.

They said that this system for wastewater treatment is different, as it removes 95 percent of bacteria.

 

5. Assetel: Detecting leaks in toilets

This is a low-cost device designed to detect invisible and inaudible leaks in toilets, preventing the water in toilet tanks from being wasted.

Around the world, one in five toilets wastes water, so this device gives a notification when there is a water leak that cannot be seen or heard.

 

6. Rain Stone: Underground irrigation system

This underground capillary irrigation system optimizes 70 percent of water in agriculture and gardening.

The entrepreneurs said that they have dedicated more than 20 years of research to developing an underground gravity-fed irrigation system, which does not use electricity or pumps and has a longer useful life than other irrigation systems.

 

7. ICLO: Low-cost chlorinator

This is an electrochemical system based on graphite electrodes, salt, and water that generates around 12 ppm of chlorine in one and a half hours. The solution is sufficiently concentrated to kill pathogens in poor quality water.

“Our project uses water, salt, and electricity to generate chlorine for treating drinking water,” they said.

 

8. CPlantae: Wastewater treatment

This offers innovative solutions for wastewater treatment through natural low-cost and low-maintenance systems.

“We’ve devoted ten years to the problem of water pollution, which we treat through a device that uses worms to eliminate pollutants in wastewater.”

 

9. Eco Infinito: Atmospheric water condenser

The goal of this atmospheric water condenser project for a microbrewery is to generate drinking water from moisture in the air, ensuring a sustainable, high-quality source for making beer.

“This uses advanced technology to obtain clean, pure water. It absorbs moisture from the air and turns it into high-quality water,” said the entrepreneurs.

 

10. Ecochar: Water filters

These are highly economical and effective biochar filters designed to protect the gastrointestinal health of families.

“It’s an innovative solution that uses waste from the beer industry. We use beer bagasse to create water filters that enable families to have clean water.”

 

11. El Humedal Kjajumu: Designing water management systems

This is a project that guarantees water preservation and facilitates the circular use model for this resource by designing integrated water management systems.

“We’ve been working for ten years on cleaning wastewater. Our approach guarantees water that is clean, available, and accessible to everyone.”

 

12. Estampa verde: Vetiver technology implementation

This focuses on nature-based regenerative solutions to tackle critical environmental problems.

They specialize in implementing the vetiver system, a sustainable technology that integrates vetiver grass plants to stabilize soil, capture carbon, and improve water management.

“As our challenge is a large-scale one, we need large-scale solutions. One carbon particle in the soil can retain four molecules of water. We’re looking to work on service area provision with our project for HEINEKEN.”

 

13. Flow: Optimizing consumption in showers

This is an electronic device that optimizes water consumption in showers.

“It uses a proximity sensor to turn the shower on only when users are near to it.”

 

14. GAPY: Optimum plant growing with less water

This is a software, hardware, and artificial intelligence platform that enables the community and producers to grow the best quality food all year round without pesticides, using 95 percent less water.

“It’s an innovative solution, a platform that enables producers to grow the best quality food and save water all year round,” they said.

 

15. Hydroloop: Water saving device

This is a water return, a device that saves the cold water which goes down the shower drain while people are waiting for the hot water to come out, returning it to the boiler through the cold-water pipe.

“Incorporating technology that lasts about 20 years can solve the problem of wasted water with a button.”

 

16. Hydrosafe: Leak detection

This is a startup dedicated to efficient water management, which is mainly focused on detecting invisible leaks in cities’ underground drinking water networks.

“We believe that we can provide a better world. It’s not that there isn’t any water; it’s that we don’t manage it well. We’re developing a system that can make leaks visible and rank them by importance to manage economic resources as well.”

 

17. Industrial water: Reusing wastewater

This consists of developing a technology focused on reusing wastewater in industry.

The main goal of this technology is to enable wastewater to be treated to turn it into drinking water fit for human consumption.

“We’re developing a technology with a system for treating any type of wastewater, which occupies 20 percent of the area of a traditional plant and complies with national and international standards,” they said.

 

18. Lluvia sólida: Water saving irrigation system

This is a viable alternative to help solve the water problem. It is an irrigation system that utilizes and saves a large amount of water, reduces irrigation by 90 percent, and can be used for any type of plants and crops.

“Climate change has led to more droughts. We’re a viable alternative in irrigation systems that’s sustainable and scalable, saves water, reduces costs, and increases food productivity.”

 

19. Vida líquida: Cleaning by breaking down dirt

Focused on the field of cleaning, this project has developed high-performance, non-toxic formulations that break down dirt and grease, which dispenses with rinsing.

“Our formulations are based on four pillars: first, they break down dirt and grease to make them biodegradable; second, they’re non-toxic to users; third, they’re high-performance; and fourth, we’ve made them rinse-free.”

 

HEINEKEN Green Challenge

This is a unique initiative promoted by HEINEKEN Mexico and incMTY that seeks to gather Mexican entrepreneurs with innovative projects which identify opportunities and solve socio-environmental problems in Mexico.

In 2023, it focused on water care, preservation, and access in communities. The winning startup was the company Aqua et Terra, which increases water productivity by using smallholding hydrants and high-precision irrigation strategies.

More than four thousand projects and approximately 12,200 entrepreneurs have taken part over the six years of the HEINEKEN Green Challenge. It has accelerated more than 100 projects, 19 of which were presented on this Demo Day.

 

 

 

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