Upscaling production and adding new product lines to the unique and patented water-to-mist technology that reduces water use by 98% without loss of functionality and keeping a high user experience

Project Information

MistAndClean

Grant agreement ID: 866982

DOI

10.3030/866982

Project closed

EC signature date 20 May 2019

Start date 1 March 2019

End date 31 May 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

ALTERED STOCKHOLM AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MistAndClean (Upscaling production and adding new product lines to the unique and patented water-to-mist technology that reduces water use by 98% without loss of functionality and keeping a high user experience)

Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2019-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Mist&Clean aims to address one of the most critical challenges of our time, water scarcity. Altered has set out to change the way society uses water with simple solutions to save billions of liters of water every year by targeting one of the areas where we use the most water, in bathrooms and kitchens. We have patented a radical new mist technology that goes beyond the state of the art in water saving devices to achieve up to 98% water and energy savings. Furthermore, our patented switch to boost mode solves the problem users face in the functionality of current water saving devices, by allowing them to increase the flow slightly when they need it. A simple swap out not only allows users to saving thousands of liters of water every year, but thousands of euros on their utility bills and reduce tons of C02 emissions.
While we have already developed a group of retrofit nozzles employing our technology for different types of faucets (home and sensor) now we want finalize our product portfolio with two new water saving devices, a fixed faucet line for kitchens and bathrooms and an extreme water saving shower line. This will not only allow our products to be used by anyone, anywhere but it will also make our product offering more attractive for the extensive value chain of manufacturers, distributors and retailers we depend on to reach our massive base of customers and end users. The key objectives of the Feasibility Study were to prepare for this next step by:
1. Creating a roadmap for all the activities needed to bring these products to the market and search for R&D Development partners.
2. Undertaking an in-depth search for all entities needed to grow our brand from retailers, distributors, manufacturers and communication partners.
3. Set the stage for future expansion into new product lines with a detailed Commercialization and Communication Plan based updated market data and IP and Certification Strategy.
4. Ensure the financial viability of our project by calculating our sales forecast to obtain a five-year cash flow simulation and assessing additional funding and hiring needs.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During our three-month Feasibility Study we achieved the following results:
1) Technical: Developed a roadmap for the design, development and testing of both our extreme water saving shower line our fixed faucets needed to make them both ready for the market. We studied the initial product specifications for each line and tested various concepts to determine that an adaption of our patented Dome technology for our showers and an adaption of our Dual Flow technology for the faucets are fitting for the next stage of development. We also studied the design components of each line to understand the design modifications needed for each line (handheld and wall mounted editions of showers and push and sensor for bathroom and kitchen faucets). We also studied various potential prototyping partners before deciding that our current R&D Development partner, Alten, would be the best fit for this project. Finally, since we also want to test our product lines in a customer beta test we compiled a list of potential pilot partners in the hotel sector for our showers, including Nordic Choice Nordic Choice Hotels, ITC and Taj and with either HSF LivinLab, KTH LivinLab or Stanford University for our faucets. We also identified all the main components for our future R&D Manual.
2) Commercial: We developed a list of over 300 potential customers, distributors, retailers, manufacturers and partners for the next stage of roll out of our commercial and communication activities in our target market segments. Developing this list allowed us to better segment our customer base and define a more targeted commercial strategy. We have undertaken an in-depth analysis of the faucet and shower markets and identified a list of opportunities on which to capitalize the sales of our products during the next stage from the use of online sales to the need for a new strategy to target real estate developers. We have also clearly identified the next steps for our existing patents for our Dual Flow and Dome technologies to bring them out of the national phase of ICT, our company trademarks and the need for four new certifications in order to make our products ready for the market. We have also determined the partners to help us bring these patents, trademarks and certifications to fruition.
3) Financial: To better understand the types of sales we need to ensure a speedy return on investment, we have calculated three sales scenarios, slow, medium and fast and determined that in order to ensure that we have a ROI by 2023, we would need to ensure the sales of at least 18K units during the first year of commercialization, and doubling those sales every year thereafter. This would contribute to an annual revenue of €46.45M million by 2024,, with EBITDA of €20.04M.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Our main progress beyond the market state of the art is the radical water and energy savings we are able to achieve beyond any other competitor in the market. We aim to completely revolutionize the faucet and shower market with by the end of the project when we have achieved 1) a complete faucet and shower line on the basis of our Dual Flow ready for production with all of our manufacturing processes in place and in compliance with all regulatory requirements and with their own proprietary IP. We will have solidified agreements with 1) suppliers and manufacturers for the production of both lines 2) major distributors and retailers in our target markets to expand our sales network and 3) launched new partnerships to demonstrate the real water and energy savings of our new product lines to end users and 4) performed regular and continuous dissemination of our achievements with a new website and videos. A completely new performance standard for water saving devices created as a result of Phase 2 project will help us contribute to millions of litres, thousands of euros and tons of CO2 saved every day. By our estimates for a single European household alone, this could mean 100,000 L of water , €750 on utility bills and 900 kg of CO2 for the average European household every single year.

Dual flow technology

Water savings comparison