This Entrepreneur Has Bottled the Solution to Clean Water Problem The British startup is creating a pod water bottle that filters out bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chemicals, etc. from the dirtiest sources of water.

With growing population, there is an increasing need to address the safe drinking water crisis. Fortunately, some Indian startups and companies are working on innovative technology to provide clean and quality drinking water.

With a mission to make a difference environmentally, ecologically for mankind, nkd Life, a British startup headquartered in London is creating a pod water bottle that filters out up to 99.9 per cent of bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chemicals, etc. from the dirtiest sources of water. Co-founded by Piush Soni in 2017, the startup is using state-of-the-art technology, developed by the celebrated American space programme NASA.

The Long Journey to Clean Water:

Numerous startups are already finding innovational opportunities in dozens (hundreds ) of prevalent problems faced by our country. Through nkd Life, Soni simply wanted to be able to provide clean, safe, health-enhancing drinking water without taxing the eco-system.

"We could not find any option that we were really happy with, so we ourselves made a start to solve the problem. Thereon, we embarked on a quest to discover why in this hi-tech age we live in safe water is not accessible to all. Our research and development team began experimenting with natural filtering methods to replicate this natural process within a bottle. After five years of development, the pod+ was finally born," shared Soni

Latest Technology

The company has incorporated technology developed for NASA space programme into their filtration system, which includes unique three-stage filtration process that further cleans the water.

"Our intelligent filtration system not only does all this without stripping water of its natural minerals but also raises the antioxidant level and slightly alkalizes the water with its in-built natural mineral media," he added.

Cost-effective solution

Capitalizing on the growing trend of filtered water bottles, all the major global players are trying to build a sustainable filtration solution.

The bottle is priced at INR 2499 and the filter is INR 999.which even the poor can afford. Soni pointed out that many filtering bottles in the market are either based on simple carbon filtration that it not capable of removing bacteria or priced too highly to be an economically viable option for the everyday user.

"We pride our self on being at the forefront of technology and manufacturing to be delivering the most effective, best quality product in the market at a cost-effective price," he said.

Tackling One Challenge at A Time :

While bringing his startup idea to life, Soni faced many hurdles finding a team of specialists and developers from so many varied disciplines, across the world.

"The next challenge was to find manufacturing partners of the highest integrity to manufacture our components – for this we have been extremely lucky to partner with some of the largest companies in the word that are market leaders in their specific fields of expertise. Lastly, our final hurdle was to satisfy high production volume requirements to achieve economies of scale. We overcame this by recruiting highly established and proven sales/market entry specialists and distributors," said Soni

Connecting to Global Markets :

In less than 12 months nkd Life has rapidly grown its distribution base globally. This has further allowed the company to sign deals with top-tier retailers in US, India, UAE and European markets. When asked about his strategy to build out the sales of pod bottles, Soni said "We plan to continue appointing key distributors and market entry specialists globally who have established routes to market via key retail groups. This year we are putting particular focus on India, China and South America, three of the world's biggest markets which have problems accessing clean, safe drinking water."