i2O water was founded in 2005 by Adam Kingdon and Andrew Burrows with backing from a small group of investors led by Andy Phillipps (non-exec Chairman).
Adam Kingdon and Andrew Burrows believed that new technology was needed to help solve the massive problem of leakage in water distribution networks. Leakage in many cities exceeds 50% - a wastage that we can ill afford. Reducing leakage will become increasingly urgent as water becomes scarcer around the world
i2O has developed innovative technology for managing the pressure on water distribution networks. This technology offers big leakage savings with short implementation times and very competitive costs compared to other leakage reduction measures. It also reduces the number of new bursts which are so disruptive to traffic and water company customers.
i2O has raised £6.2m in three different funding rounds. The latest in April 2009 raised £4.2m from a venture capital consortium led by Swarraton Partners.
Initial trials carried out in 2007 and 2008 with Severn Trent Water went even better than expected, with leakage savings of 26%. This led to the first commercial systems being installed at the end of 2008. The company now has 40 systems installed across the UK with ten different water companies. Average savings across all the systems remains above 20%, saving an average of 48,000 litres of drinking water per system per day. Many of the installed systems have also improved customer service by increasing pressure at critical times of the day, such as the early morning.
i2O has already received its first orders from outside the UK and from early 2010 plans to begin installing its technology in Malaysia, Australia, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria and many other parts of the world.
If the i2O technology is applied world-wide, it could save 6.4 billion cubic meters/year – enough to bring drinking water to a further 200 million people. It could also reduce carbon emissions by over one million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.