Investors back WINT to detect and reduce costly water damage

Water management and leak detection company WINT Water Intelligence has secured a $15 million Series B funding round from Insight Partners and a collection of real-estate companies.

New investment trend

A new trend is emerging in the innovation space as more water management and security technology is being backed by significant financial investment.

Why is this?

New water sustainability and leak detection technology have the potential to save utilities, businesses and real-estate developers millions in leakage costs, flooding, contaminated water and burst pipes.

Water monitoring technology is at a stage now where we can monitor and track in real-time the condition of the water entering homes.

“WINT solves some of today's key challenges in the real estate, construction and property insurance industries.”

Previously Verisk Analytics’ ISO unit found that the total amount of insurance pay-outs for water damage in the US was $13 billion - with an average claim cost of $10,000.

As a result, private equity fund Insight Partners and software ScaleUp companies, along with several real-estate companies have invested $15 million in a Series B round of funding in WINT Water Intelligence.

WINT, a water management and leak-prevention solutions company, specialises in these solutions for construction, commercial and industrial applications.

Nikitas Koutoupes, managing director at Insight Partners, said: "WINT solves some of today's key challenges in the real estate, construction and property insurance industries, which are primed for significant technological disruption and transformation."

Water monitoring technology is in high demand right now, with Anglian Water recently partnering with Watr, to use its floating devices to track water in its catchment.

Why WINT?

WINT is a water technology start-up that is fast making a name for itself in the construction and real-estate space.

Azrieli Towers, a large office and mall complex in Tel Aviv, has three towers and a multi-level shopping centre.

Due to the vast size, the three towers and mall needed a great deal of water to operate their air conditioning system.

“This detection allowed Azrieli Towers to save 250,000 gallons of water per year.”

WINT was brought in to install its detection devices on the buildings cooling towers to detect irregular operation at the cooling towers resulting in excessive use of water.

The device uncovered a mechanical fault that was wasting over 66,000 gallons per day. This detection allowed Azrieli Towers to save 250,000 gallons of water per year.

Wan Li Zhu, managing director of Suffolk Technologies, another investor said: "Water leak damage, waste and their resulting carbon emissions can be major issues on construction sites and in real estate facilities operations."

In another example, Tidhar Construction, one of the investors in WINT Series B round funding, needed a solution that would alert in real-time so staff could shut off the leak before damages occurred.

Over two years, Tidhar deployed WINT at over 40 of its construction projects. In total, WINT detected six shuts of events from a defective fitting to a broken hose and even a tap mistakenly left open.

The result, there was zero damage in any of Tidhar's projects.

Prevent. Protect. Preserve.

"Insight's experience in scaling up innovative start-ups, combined with the broad endorsement from leading GCs and real-estate companies who joined our journey will allow us to continue our drive to eliminate water damage, waste, and carbon emissions in buildings," said Alon Geva, CEO of WINT.

“It will allow us to continue our drive to eliminate water damage, waste, and carbon emissions in buildings."

Investors include Suffolk Construction, the Consensus Business Group, Tidhar, Electra, Ashtrom, Rogovin, and the Israel-Canada group.

"We are excited to be an investor and to partner with WINT to accelerate market adoption of this important solution that improves the sustainability of the built environment," Li Zhu went on to say.