Parma, Italy-based Iride Acque, an SME that promotes the reuse of industrial waste through the purification of wastewater, announced on Tuesday, January 3, that it has raised €662K in crowdfunding on the Opstart platform. According to the company, it raised this amount in just a few hours.
The Italian company launched this crowdfunding campaign with a target of €700K. The company will use the funds to strengthen its commercial structure, sales channel, and marketing activities and increase turnover as well as a range of services through acquisition, says the report.
Currently, industries are required to treat the water used in their production processes before it is discharged. However, the traditional technologies used to purify wastewater cannot satisfy the demands of the manufacturing world, often forcing it to dispose of its wastewater at specialised and costly plants.
Here’s where Iride Acque comes into play!
Iride Acque: What you need to know
Founded in 2015, Iride Acque primarily deals with industrial wastewater treatment, particularly its reuse. The company claims to have transformed a costly process into an affordable one through its patented technology.
According to the company, the heart of its patented technology is a catalyst produced from waste materials obtained from exhausted batteries.
Consequently, the patenting solution enables industries to contain costs and optimise the purification and disinfection processes of the treated liquids, allowing their reuse and reducing the impact deriving from their discharge.
Iride Acque has so far acquired two patents:
A water purification technology that uses ozone combined with a magnetic field. The company claims that it is widely used to purify drinking water, domestic and industrial wastewater, and the water used in swimming pools and guarantees high disinfection. The second patent is wastewater purification technology that uses a nanotechnological ferrous catalyst obtained from waste batteries through a process that is difficult to reproduce.
To date, the company has worked with over 12 clients, including Mutti Spa, Iren Spa, and a company owned by Moncler.
In the past, when awareness of respect for the environment was still not widespread, industries discharged industrial waste into the sewers, paying a waiver. Today such harmful behaviour is, fortunately, less and less possible. And there are many companies interested in operating ecologically and sustainably. There are many virtuous entrepreneurs – says Monica Casadei, CEO and co-founder of Iride Acque to StartupNews.it.
She adds, “But industrial water purification has always been difficult because truly effective technologies were lacking. Thanks to our experience in the sector, we have focused on the weaknesses of the technologies we already knew, managing to propose a new, highly efficient, affordable solution. As a result, we address all the CEOs who want to treat wastewater not only because the law requires it but also because they are convinced that it is important and right to do so.”