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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

water

Air-to-Water Technology Maker ‘The Air Water Company’ To Go Public Via SPAC

Today, Air Water Ventures (previously known as Eshara Water) and the publicly listed SPAC Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. II announced a business combination agreement, resulting in a new company called The Air Water Company. This merger will establish the first publicly traded air-to-water technology pure-play when the combined company begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange, anticipated in the first quarter of 2024.

Air Water Venture’s technology uses an airflow system that extracts the water from the environment using its atmospheric water generators. According to Air Water’s CEO Alex Guy, the technology makes sense for places like the Middle East that have little access to groundwater or surface water.

Guy first encountered air-to-water technology while working in private equity in the Middle East. In 2018, he was introduced to a UK company with air-to-water technology that soon went bankrupt. Guy recognized the interest in this technology in the UAE and began exploring the creation of an air-to-water company.

“No one had heard about it,” Guy told The Spoon. “It almost sounds too good to be true. You look at an air-to-water unit, you look around the back to see where the hose pipe is plugged in, because no one quite believes it produces water just from extracting humidity in the air.”

After founding the company in 2019, the first project involved developing a 1,000-liter per day air-to-water generator in partnership with Raytheon. The founding team initially believed this technology would primarily benefit military and disaster relief efforts.

“The basic thesis of the project was it was an attempt to reduce the cost of transporting plastic bottled water for the frontline military personnel.”

However, Guy and his co-founders soon realized the potential for a consumer and commercial product portfolio.

“Hotels and schools were under pressure to remove plastic,” Guy said. “Big corporates in the UAE all made commitments to eradicate plastic bottles by 2022-2023. So we saw an opportunity there to try and help with that movement away from plastic.”

Today, the company’s technology is being deployed in the Middle East, where the company recently completed a water production facility at a hotel in Abu Dhabi named the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr. The Fairmont’s installation includes both an air-to-water generator that can produce up to 4 thousand liters of drinking water per day and a bottling plant.

Guy anticipates that the IPO via SPAC with Athena will provide the working capital to increase production of air-to-water generators and expand the product line. The company is developing residential and hotel room generators that can produce 2 or 5 liters per day. The 2-liter residential unit, which Air Water is looking to roll out in the US market in the next year, will retail for around $145. The 5-liter unit, which could go into hotel rooms in places like the Middle East or the American Southwest, would produce water in-room and replace “all of those plastic bottles that sit next to a Nespresso machine.”

The company plans to expand its commercial offerings, producing a range of products capable of generating 10, 20, 30 liters up to 50,000 liters. Guy envisions their solution as a comprehensive offering for larger commercial installations seeking to eliminate plastic, partly due to the company’s ability to create automated bottling plants.

Guy believes that while the initial attraction of their technology is to reduce plastic usage, the growing water crisis in areas like the US Southwest will become an additional driving force over time.

“The sustainability-driven consumer is going to focus on plastic consumption, but ultimately, I think that focus is going to shift to the source of water,” Guy said. “You know, where is the water actually coming from?”

Guy believes that their product will work well in locations with sufficient humidity to produce water from air, such as Florida or Arizona in the US. In contrast, states like Washington may not provide enough humidity during certain seasons like winter for the technology to function effectively. Internationally, countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, which have suitable environmental conditions and insufficient traditional water infrastructure, could benefit from their solution.

“I think air-to-water technology is a much cheaper solution (there), because you get rid of all of that traditional water infrastructure that you usually have to build.”

The Air Water Company isn’t the only company focused on building air-to-water generators. Arizona-based Source Water, originally called Zero Mass Water, is building air-to-water technology using solar panels that extract water from air. The company has raised $150 million from the likes of Bill Gates and Black Rock. Israel-based WaterGen, which has received funding from the Israel government, has deployed its technology into numerous countries which lack clean drinking water. And at this year’s CES, Kara Water showed off its 10L home and office unit that can produce alkaline-rich water from air.

According to the announcement, the newly formed company will have a pre-money equity value of $300 million and will have up to $60 million in financing to fund the growth of the company.

Kara Water Shows Off Its Air-to-Water Dispenser at CES 2023

At CES 2023, Kara Water showed off its Kara Pure water dispenser that takes moisture from the air and turns it into drinking water.

The Kara Pure combines three functions into one machine. The machine uses the process of desiccation to gather water from the air and accumulates up to 2.5 gallons (10L) of water per day. The machine also acts as a water purifier and dispenser, making it an all-in-one water machine, only without the need to replace water jugs every few days.

Air-to-Water Dispenser at CES 2023 #shorts

Kara Water isn’t the first company to show off water-from-air technology at CES. Watergen, which sucks in air and cools it to a dew point to create water droplets, demoed their machine in 2019 and debuted the working model a year later. Zero Mass Water, which uses solar power to capture moisture and turn it into drinking water, showed off its machine at CES 2019.

Kara Water was founded in 2017 by Cody Sooden and Michael Di Giovanna. The two wanted to create a machine that could produce clean drinking water free of contaminants. Sooden’s interest in the technology started after he began experimenting with capturing water from air while studying architecture. He eventually wrote a research paper on harvesting moisture from the air, which eventually became the genesis of the company’s technology.

The company ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and raised $722 thousand dollars. The company announces it had finished production of its first units and started shipping to backers last month.

The Kara Pure is available now, but at a price of $3,799, it’s most likely priced a little high for consumers and will probably show up in offices or coworking spaces. The company’s founders have already started working to sell the technology in emerging markets like India, where contaminated water is a significant issue.

At Long Last, Mitte Begins to Ship Countertop Mineral Water Machine

Mitte, a maker of countertop mineral water machines, announced this week that they would begin shipping their first product, the Mitte Home, this month. The Berlin-based company will ship first to new customers and Kickstarter backers in Germany and plans to begin selling the water-mineralizer in the US in the spring of 2022.

The Mitte Home, which sells for €350, filters and mineralizes the water using a two-step process. The water is filtered using activated charcoal. After filtration, the water seeps through calcite and magnesite rocks to add calcium and magnesium. After mineralizing, the system adds CO₂ and dispenses. The system uses a cartridge system for filtration and mineralization, with each cartridge good for 250 liters. The machine also uses replaceable CO₂ cylinders to add the fizz.

The Mitte Home can be controlled by an app, which allows users to track consumption. The app also allows users order new cartridges and CO₂ cylinders.

The original Mitte product offered via the company’s Kickstarter campaign included water distillation, but this version only provides filtration. According to the company’s update on Kickstarter, a premium model called the Mitte Home Plus will include distillation and will ship in 2-3 years. The company is offering backers the option get a Mitte Home, wait for the Mitte Home Plus, or get a full refund.

While the Mitte comes to market over three years late, backers of the Kickstarter can take comfort in the product actually shipping. Hardware-based crowdfunding campaigns are notoriously high-risk, many products never ship, and those that do are usually late. The company’s ability to persist was no doubt in part due to a $10.6 million funding round in 2018. That round, led by DanonevManifesto Ventures, the New York-based venture arm of Danone, was significantly more than the $317 thousand raised as part of its crowdfunding campaign.

If you live in Germany and would like to order a Mitte, you can do so today at mitte.co, while those who live outside of Germany can add themselves to the waitlist.

Kickstarter: Bottle+ is a Waste-Free Thermos That Gives You Fizzy Water on the Go

We drink an insane amount of bubble water in our household. And while it’s all from recyclable aluminum cans, it still feels… excessive. Which is why the new Bottle+ project on Kickstarter caught my eye. The SPARK Bottle+ is a travel thermos with a built-in, re-usable CO2 chamber to fizz up your water while you’re on the go. In addition keeping your drinks as maximum fizz even as the thermos jostles around in your backpack, the Bottle+ is also waste free.

There are three main components to the SPARK Bottle+, the main drinking vessel, a portable CO2 chamber that attaches to the vessel, and a refilling station. Just like a SodaStream, you place a CO2 cylinder inside the refilling station. When you’re ready to go, affix the chamber to the thermos and press it down onto the refilling station to load your Bottle+ with CO2. When you’re out, press the button on the CO2 chamber to carbonate your water. A full chamber can make produce 15 bottles of sparkling water before needing a recharge.

The whole system is circular and reusable so there is really no waste. The bottle itself is obviously reusable, and like the SodaStream the CO2 canisters can be swapped out and turned in for refilling. Plus, there are no pods to be packaged and shipped.

Launched on August 24th, the Bottle+ campaign has already blown past it Kickstarter goal of $29, 510 and has raised more than $77,000 as of this writing (with 31 days still to go). Early backers can pick up a complete Bottle+ system for €139 (~$164 USD). According to the campaign page, the Bottle+ system will cost €179 (~$211 USD). Units will ship in June 2022.

According to Grandview Research, the global market for sparkling water is valued at $29.71 billion, and projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6 percent from this year to 2028. So Bottle+ is certainly launching at the right time.

The entire hydration space is actually chock-a-block with companies vying to improve the water you drink and how you drink it. In March of this year, Pani launched a crowdfunding campaign for its water filter/mineralizer/flavor pod system. Earlier this month, Cirkul raised $36 million for its reusable water bottle and flavor cartridge combo. And just last week, drink giant PepsiCo announced that it was bringing its SodaStream Pro fizzy water dispenser to college campuses.

As with any Kickstarter project, backing it is definitely buyer beware. There is a big difference between developing a prototype and scaling up to mass production — just ask the backers of Rite-Press and iGulu. However, if Bottle+ can pull it off, that will be a definite plus for the planet and for soda water addicts like me.

Pani Launches Crowdfunding Campaign for Its Countertop Hydration System

What should we call Pani, the forthcoming hydration system that officially launched its crowdfunding campaign today?

It’s a water filter, because it removes bad stuff like chlorine and mercury from your tap water. It’s also a mineralizer, because it adds good stuff like calcium and potassium back into your water. But it also sports a pod system to infuse flavors and enhancement boosts into your water.

At the end of the day, Pani creator, Allen Tsai just wants to improve the water you’re drinking. Pani (the word) means “water” in Hindi, and Tsai was inspired to launch Pani (the company) in 2018 after spending time digging water wells in Nepal. Pani’s first product was an IoT water flow meter that tracked water usage. That product turned out to be more of a B2B play, but for this new hydration system, Tsai is focused on the consumer market.

In addition to filtering, mineralizing and flavoring water, the countertop Pani device also dispenses said water hot and cold, between 40 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pani is launching at a time of growth for the bottled water industry. Even soda giant PepsiCo got in on the action a few years back with its acquisition of SodaStream. So the timing is right to catch on with audiences that still want flavored/mineral water but don’t want to buy single-use bottles and contribute to the world’s huge plastic waste problem. In addition to eliminating the need for bottles, Pani’s flavor pods are multi-use and the plastic housing is reusable, so it avoids Keurig-like waste problems as well.

All of this, however, does not come cheap. Early Pani backers can buy a Pani for $199 (while limited supplies last). When it comes to retail in the Spring of 2022, a Pani will cost $399. That’s a lot for a single-use countertop device. It does however, offer more functionality than the Mitte, which just mineralizes water, or the Rocean, which only creates fizzy water.

In the end, the Pani is many things, now it just needs to see if it’s the right thing for consumers.

PeakBridge Commits Up to $3M in Funding for BE WTR

Investment firm Peakbridge is opening up the funding tap for Swiss hydration company BE WTR. In a LinkedIn post this week, Peakbridge Founder and Managing Director, Nadav Berger, announced that his firm “has committed to invest up to $3M in BE WTR.”

BE WTR makes a variety of hygienic water taps for offices and other businesses. The various high-tech taps can pour still or sparkling water, or heat or chill water. BE WTR taps also come with BRITA filtration built into the unit.

The B2B hydration space has been relatively quiet this year, which is understandable, given COVID shutting many business locations down. But there’s still been some activity. At the start of the year, Rocean’s sparkling water machine was getting installed in every room at the Conrad Hotel in New York earlier this year as a perk. In the midst of the pandemic, Bevi added contactless ordering features to its office smart water coolers. The pandemic also didn’t stop Pepsi from launching its SodaStream Professional water dispensers for offices this past July.

But with a vaccine on the horizon, we could see activity in office-related hydration products pick back up. Some companies are re-opening traditional offices, while others are creating smaller regional hubs that employees occasionally come into. Regardless of what shape an office takes post-COVID, a large swath of office worker employees will probably spend less time in actual buildings. As such, companies will seek to maximize that in-person time together. Part of that will be adding small touches like easy-to-use high-end water taps that not only reduce in-office waste (fewer bottles of water), but also give employees a little added comfort.

CES 2020: Watergen Wants to Replace the Water Cooler by Making H20 from Air

Maybe it’s just that I’m parched from the dry Las Vegas air, but it seems like water tech has been big at CES this year. There’s rOcean, the smart water machine which dispenses fizzy or flavored water on-demand. Zero Mass Water, which captures the humidity in the air and turns it into potable water with solar power, is also back.

This morning I had a chance to speak to another company trying to reinvent the way we get our H20. Watergen uses patented technology to create filtered water from air. The Israeli company’s water dispensers, called GENNYs, are about the size of a traditional water cooler and plug into electrical outlets. To make water, they suck air into the machine and cool it to a dew point to create water droplets, which is then filtered. A single GENNY can make up to 30 liters (8 gallons) of water per day and can be dispensed hot or chilled.

Watergen has been developing GENNY since 2009 and actually won a CES 2019 Best of Innovation award last year. However, it will finally start shipping the GENNY in the U.S., its first market, this June, for an MSRP of $2,499. Filters — which should be replaced every six months — will cost around $125. The GENNY will be available intially through Watergen’s website.

If you’re familiar with Zero Mass Water, you’ve probably noted that these two technologies sound pretty similar. But according to Watergen representative Nick Harris, GENNY is unique in that it can run on electricity and isn’t reliant on solar power (though the company is also developing a solar-powered device). That makes it a lot easier to set up in smaller settings, like homes or offices, and a lot easier to move. Zero Mass is also significantly more expensive; it costs over $5,000 to install a two-panel system, which creates enough water for four to six people (though they also have a new model which can be purchased for $2,500 each).

Watergen has a charitable mission as well. The company worked with the American Red Cross and FEMAA to donate some of its larger units to areas that lack consistent access to clean drinking water across the globe. Harris even told me they’d sent a unit to Flint, Michigan in the wake of the city’s enduring water crisis.

The Genny, however, is meant to be a more sustainable upgrade to home and office water coolers — no giant plastic water bottles required. And honestly, it’s about time that we start seeing some serious innovation in the H20 space. With rising populations and increased demands for meat, freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce. Places around the world — from developing countries to right here in the U.S. — struggle to have consistent access to clean drinking water. At the same time, our oceans are filling up with discarded plastic water bottles. Here’s hoping we see (and taste) more water tech at CES’s to come.

You can watch a video of me getting a tour of the GENNY device (and tasting its water!) from the CES show floor below.

A Tour of Watergen's GENNY at CES 2020

Spärkel Ships Fizzy Drink Machine That Carbonates Beverages Without a CO2 Cartridge

Over the past couple years, consumption of flavored sparkling water has skyrocketed. The trend has held true in my own household, where we’ve started downing so much of the fizzy stuff I’ve given thought to putting a home drink carbonator on my holiday wish list.

In the past that usually meant buying a SodaStream or one of its many clones, but as of today I have another option: The Spärkel.

What’s the difference between a Spärkel and a SodaStream? Unlike a SodaStream or one its competitors, the Spärkel doesn’t require a CO2 cartridge, instead using a small single-use “sachet” that includes a combination of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate that combines with water to create CO2. The CO2 is cycled through the water chamber to infuse flavors and carbonate.

And while a SodaStream user can chop up and mix natural ingredients into their water and infuse them, the company (now owned by Pepsi) puts a big emphasis on flavor drops. Spärkel doesn’t push flavored syrups, instead pushing its users to add their own ingredients.

Why would you want to eliminate the CO2 cartridges? For one, it would allow you to do away with empty cartridges, which often time go in the garbage. And while CO2 cartridges on home carbonators like the SodaStream are generally considered safe, they have been known to occasionally blow up.

If there’s a downside to using a Spärkel compared to a standard system with a CO2 cartridge, it’s that the users has to pour in the fizz-making chemicals into the system with each use.

Since the CO2 ingredient sachets are made specifically for Spärkel, that means the user has to reorder ever time they cycle through a packet of 90. A packet of carbonators is available for about $50 on Amazon, which translates to about 55 cents per use, or roughly about the same per use cost for CO2 from cylinders (a 60 liter CO2 cartridge can be bought on Amazon for $35).

The chemicals – citric acid (a naturally occuring acid in fruit) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) – are fairly harmless and are kept separate from the water as the resulting CO2 is cycled through the beverage chamber. Once used, the CO2-causing ingredients are then emptied into the sink after use. From an environmental standpoint, the Spärkel has a fairly small footprint, and is certainly better than tossing can after empty can of Spindrift into the recycle bin.

The Spärkel system was first sold through an Indiegogo campaign, raising over $150 thousand on the strength of over 2300 backers. And while Bonne O, the company behind Spärkel, may have used crowdfunding to launch the project’s trajectory, they hardly needed the funds since they raised a $7.5 million in series B funding round this past May.

While over seven million bucks seems like a lot of money for a new product, I’m sure part of the reason for the sizeable funding round was the company behind Sparkel had already brought an earlier version of the product to market. The company’s first product was called the Bonne O Sparkling Water System, and apparently things went well enough with the first product that it convinced investors to chip in on the sizeable series B.

I’m also guessing the investors are betting on the continued growth of the sparkling water category, as consumers pull away from sugary sodas and look to drink healthier options. They no doubt saw the SodaStream exit of over $3 billion to Pepsi and figured that at some point another big drink maker might want to add a home carbonator to their portfolio.

You can buy a Spärkel on the company’s website starting today for $99.

Fancy Countertop Water Machines Are Not the Solution to the Bottled Water Crisis

Single-use plastics are a threat to the world, and a large contributor of that waste is bottled water. The segment, led by food conglomerates including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle, is a huge business, pulling in $16 billion in 2016 in the U.S.

It makes sense then that startups and other companies are now introducing alternatives to bottled water to prevent more plastics from entering landfills and oceans. These alternatives take the form of countertop water filters, and there’s no shortage of them. Coming soon to the market are Lang’s All-in-One Drinks System, the Rocean One and Mitte.

All offer similar features: they filter water, of course, but also carbonate or mineralize it. Lang and Rocean also offer flavoring packs. All the machines are smart, reminding users when to replace the filters, carbon and mineral cartridges and flavoring packs. They also come at a high price, with Lang costing about $555, Mitte coming in at $529 and Rocean $349. Amazingly, there are waitlists for all three devices (the later two were successfully crowdfunded).

While these companies’ goals are laudable — Rocean’s plan is “to remove 1 billion single-use bottles from circulation within five years” — it’s built on the faulty premise that Americans even need to buy bottled water in the first place. Essentially, buying an expensive machine to filter water so you don’t buy bottled water cures a problem that is entirely avoidable in the first place.

For most people in the U.S., tap water is generally safe to drink. If you want to be extra cautious, you can buy a relatively inexpensive filter such as ones made by Brita or Pur. There is also always the option of boiling water to kill potential microorganisms.

But perhaps the main reason to stop buying bottled water is that it’s not even safer to drink than most tap water (and it has more microplastics). This is due to the fact that in the U.S. and Europe, more rigorous standards are applied to tap water than bottled, according to a study commissioned by The World Wildlife Fund. So really, people are paying corporations to put water that’s of equal or lesser quality to tap water in a plastic bottle that will live on for hundreds of years.

So spare yourself from opening your wallet for what Fast Company has dubbed “the Juicero of water,” and pour yourself a nice glass or reusable bottle of tap water. Not only will you prevent another plastic bottle from entering a landfill or the ocean, you’ll save money too.

LANG Launches Home Mineral Water Machine to Break Your Plastic Bottle Habit

So, it turns out that maybe all those plastic bottles you’ve thrown into the recycle bin to be, you know, recycled…. aren’t. America is facing a recycling crisis and one easy way to help is to not buy that plastic bottle of water at all.

That’s part of the pitch LANG Switzerland is making today with the official launch of its eponymous countertop drink system that creates filtered mineral water as well as flavored drinks — sans single-use bottle.

First, the LANG uses a triple filtration system that includes a 1-micron sediment filter, an activated carbon filter and a reverse osmosis filter. Once filtered, the company’s removable LANGPAKS add salts and minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium back into the water. Additional LANGPAKS can add flavor like lemon to your water, or make hot black or green tea. The company says the LANG will create a drink in less than four minutes.

Plastic is certainly top of mind for a lot of people and companies around the world right now as people wake up to the fact that single-use plastic waste is huge problem. Cities are banning plastic straws, plastic-free grocery stores are popping up, and corporate giants like Nestlé and Unilever are experimenting with reusable containers for their products. So LANG is certainly striking while the ethical iron is hot.

But LANG isn’t the only company in the bottleless, countertop mineral water device game. Mitte, also based in Europe, has its own machine, though it only filters and re-mineralizes water (no fruity flavors), and won’t be shipping until June of this year. Additionally, Mitte has been open about its plans to move beyond the countertop and integrating its technology into existing appliances like fridges or faucet systems.

The LANG, however, is shipping now, and the device itself will set you back €499 (~$566 USD). LANGPAKS will cost anywhere from €19.95 (~$22.65 USD) to €24.95 (~$28.33 USD). The mineral LANGPAKS will create 250 liters of mineral water, while the flavor packs will deliver 300 cups. The filters will last two years, according to the company, and the machine is self-cleaning.

Anecdotally, here at The Spoon, we aren’t sure how much demand there is for a machine that just mineralizes water. But it might be more telling that both LANG and Mitte are based in Europe, where such a device could be more welcome.

Sure, you still have to clean the cups and glasses you use, but that’s better than buying a one-time plastic bottle that winds up never getting recycled.

CES 2019 Video: Zero Mass Water Makes H20 Out of Thin Air

At a conference known for flashy (and admittedly super cool) technology gadgets like self-operating lawnmowers and foldable TV’s, it’s refreshing to see a company that’s leveraging tech to solve global environmental issues.

One example is Zero Mass Water, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based startup that showed off its system which turns air and sunlight into potable water.

Here’s the basic premise: solar-powered hydropanels capture humidity in the air, which is distilled into water and combined with minerals for taste. Apparently, the standard two-hydropanel setup can make 300-600 bottles of water every month. In a world where we’re quickly running out of clean water, that can do a lot of good.

We caught up with Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, Zero Mass Water’s Head of Marketing & Communications, on the CES Digital Experience floor to learn more about how their tech is working to solve the world’s water crisis using only sunlight and air.

CES 2019: Zero Mass Water Makes Water Out of Sunlight and Air

Startup rOcean Plans to Save the Oceans—Right from Your Tap

Home soda and beverage devices are in the news again thanks to PepsiCo’s recent $3.2B acquisition of home carbonation purveyor SodaStream and German startup Mitte’s recent funding announcement. Some obvious advantages of systems like these is their ability to give you more control over what you’re drinking while reducing your overall costs and household plastic waste. And while SodaStream has been aggressively repositioning to benefit from recent healthier water trends, let’s face it: with mixes like “Fountain Mist” and “Dr. Pete,” it originally debuted as a consumable-sustained alternative to expensive, store-bought sodas.

A new startup called rOcean is taking a different approach. Launching its first product through IndieGoGo earlier this year, rOcean is focusing on the earth and health benefits of enhancing and drinking your own water.

You’ll first notice that rOcean’s decidedly contemporary countertop device, the rOcean One, is larger than a SodaStream carbonator. That’s because there’s a lot more going on inside of it. It will filter, carbonate, and flavor your own tap water—even plugging into the water line to make operation nearly as simple as pouring from a faucet. You can manage your preferred flavor intensity and degree of carbonation from their app or directly on an integrated touch-screen control panel, and their bottles will have RFID tags that can be assigned to your favorite beverage recipes.

The rOcean One is also more expensive than SodaStream’s carbonators. The $349 estimated retail price is about twice the price of SodaStream’s highest-price option, but the savings come in the long term. You use your own tap water, and you’re not dependent on rOcean for proprietary, disposable flavor pods. Instead the rOcean One features reusable cartridges you can fill with your own, natural flavoring or from larger rOcean flavor refill packs (think Method-brand soap refills). And the water filters? They’re designed to be cheaper and significantly more effective than standard pitcher filters.

The open model that rOcean has embraced is an interesting one. While companies like Keurig and SodaStream rely on recurring income from licensed or direct retail sales, rOcean’s only consumables are its CO2 cartridges and water filters. The primary consumable—flavoring—is optional since you can bring your own.

For households interested in a healthy, earth-conscious alternative to expensive flavored or carbonated water beverages, rOcean seems like a logical alternative. But it comes with risk. While the crowd-funding campaign was wildly successful, and they’re now accepting a second round of pre-orders, this is still a new company delivering a connected product dependent on some proprietary consumables. The good news is that rOcean’s offering checks the right boxes for a good many people, helping them drink more water while saving time, money, … and the oceans!

Sunjay Guleria, rOcean’s founder and CEO, is optimistic. Following SodaStream’s acquisition, Guleria told us, “Pepsi buying SodaStream is good for the market overall.” He continues, “it validates the growth opportunities and shows that the big players are paying attention to recent changes in consumer preferences, where more people are opting for healthier and sustainable alternatives to single-use bottled water and sugary-based beverages.”

Will rOcean deliver on this promise? We’ll know more when the company fulfills its first pre-orders, slated for December of this year.