This faucet uses 98% less water than traditional taps — now IKEA is about to launch a version that costs less than $6
- The founders of Swedish startup Altered have come up with an invention the whole world has been waiting for.
- Their first product Altered:Nozzle Dual Flow is developed for households and slashes water use to next to nothing.
- Furniture giant IKEA is already a partner and is about to launch a licensed model.
Sometimes, inventions can benefit from staying in a drawer and "maturing" — and in this case, the invention stayed away for six years before it was finally taken out.
It was over a family meal at innovation professor Kaj Mickos's home that the old prototype was finally brought out of storage.
"Kaj, my father-in-law, had previously made many attempts to impassion his family members about various projects, but this time, I'd been telling him that my friend Mikael Abbhagen and I wanted to seize on something new — a physical product that could make a difference in the world. Then, Kaj brought out his old idea," said Johan Nihlén, the CEO and one of the founders of Altered, when we meet at the Alma office space centre in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mickos, who had spent a large portion of his professional life beyond his academic career teaching companies how innovations are created, had been in Shanghai six years prior.
"It was just before the world exhibition of 2010, Better City, Better Life, that I did an innovation race with Chinese universities. We took on the challenge of water. I saw that we needed to start with all the taps that already exist," said Mickos.
"In an ordinary tap, 10 to 12 litres of water are running out per minute. That's a lot of water, and it's only a small part that touches your hands or rinses off the plate, while the rest goes down the drain. My idea was to atomise the water so every drop gets its own surface, and, at the same time, to increase the speed. Then, you get a more 'efficient' effect out of each drop," he adds.
The morning after they launched their product idea at the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, Nihlén found 800 new emails in his inbox.
While it was easy to raise enough finances to get the project going, it was considerably harder to fulfil the delivery target to all the backers by Christmas.
"The logistics and construction were not quite in place, and with the new financing, we were able to make an even better product. So we did a reboot and started delivering in April-May of 2017.
The first product, the Altered:Nozzle Dual Flow, was primarily developed for households. It has two settings, one where the water enters as a mist and which saves 98%, and one where the water is being sprayed and which saves 85%.
"Filling a glass of water with the mist setting takes three minutes. Therefore, you can change settings into a more normal flow, or 1.2 litres per second. There's also the option to increase the flow even further in order, for example, to be able to fill up pots in a kitchen. But even there, you don't need more than four litres per minute," according to Nihlén.
There were also a wide variety of companies that got in touch after the Kickstarter campaign, from Coca-Cola to India's Tata. Another company that got in touch was IKEA.
"For a long time, we held secret discussions with IKEA about opening up our licenses and letting IKEA develop a version of their own of our product. Apart from licensing fees, we also received support with developing our own version," said Nihlén.
On June 7 this year, the collaboration became official. IKEA's version will be called Misteln, and is expected to cost around $6 when it's launched in about one year.
How could you relate that to the $36 that you charge for your nozzle today?
"The product that we have on the market today is made from non-leaded brass, and of course has much more durability than IKEA's product, which will be made from plastic. So they're aimed at different customer segments. IKEA, of course, only sells its version through its own channel. The rest of the world lies open to us," said Nihlén.
"We'll also produce a plastic version of our own,' he continued, "which will be different when it comes to materials, function, and certainly design. Even if it won't be as inexpensive as IKEA's, it's closer to it. So, in the end, it's up to the consumers to choose which product they prefer. But the most important thing to us is to actually make a difference to the water situation in the world today. Having an opportunity, then, to really reach out globally with our product was an opportunity we wanted to act upon."
So far, Altered has sold 60,000 nozzles all over the world. Together with hotel customers, for example, they've been developing new models, which are also suitable for offices and public spaces. Together with distributors in the US, the Middle East, and India, they're now looking to focus on reaching out to those customers too.
Even before the crowdfunding campaign, Altered had raised capital from serial entrepreneur Viktor Tell, who is also a friend of Nihlén's. Together, they then led a first round of financing at $550,000 with investors from Viktor's network. Now, a new round of financing is underway, where Altered will raise $1.65 million in order to be able to continue its geographical expansion.
Altered's invention has patents pending on several markets, but so far, there are no outright competitors according to Mickos and Nihlén.
But isn't the Orbital shower a big competitor?
"We think Orbital's shower is a fantastic solution. But it's lengthier and more expensive to install. Our primary strength is that it's quick and simple to install our product on existing taps. Our technology also needs to be developed to fit showers. The mist drops are so small, they lose heat very quickly. That means you need to increase the temperature, which uses more energy — and that's something we'd like to avoid. But we're working on a prototype solution. However, we can see both our and Orbital's products have their places on the market," said Nihlén.
Altered has not only attracted interest from companies and individual customers worldwide; last year, they emerged as winners from the Clas Ohlson Product Innovation Challenge, which also meant that Altered's nozzles were made available in all of Clas Ohlson's markets and sales channels.
Altered's nozzle was also one of five innovations this year awarded the WWF's Climate Solver prize, for having great potential for reducing emissions and energy demand over the next 10 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment