Water is one resource that has been taken for granted by many people all around the world. Chennai-based water management startup WEGoT aims to educate and help people conserve water using IoT based management system and software. Founded by four engineers from Chennai, Vijay Krishna, Mohamed Mohideen, Abilash Haridass and Sundeep Donthamshetty, with the goal to eradicate unnecessary and avoidable loss of water, WEGoT has already helped to save 1 Billion+ liters of water. Chennai Insider in conversation with Team WEGoT gets to know more about WEGoT solutions and the thought behind it!
Chennai Insider: Give a brief info about WEGoT?
Team WeGot: WEGoT aqua is a low cost, high precision, data driven IoT based end-to-end water management solution that aims to solve the impending water crisis by reducing water consumption by up to 50%.
Chennai Insider: What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?
Team WeGot: A recent water report states that 21 of the metro cities will run out of the water and the majority of the Indian water resources will run dry by 2030. Growing up in Chennai and being witness to acute water shortages, the founders wanted to contribute and help the city solve its water shortage. Having understood the promise of IoT, the group ventured to develop a sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT) device and a software platform that can be connected to water inlet pipes.
Given that residential usage accounts for a large portion of India’s water consumption, water is one luxury that needs to be conserved efficiently. WEGoT attempts to leverage technology to solve the water crisis and check instances of water theft and inlet water quality in major cities in India. Founded by 4 young entrepreneurs with a passion for promoting conscious consumption of water, WEGoT aims to support the adoption of sustainable water use practices at residential and commercial properties. Since its inception, WEGoT as an end-to-end water management solutions provider has been instrumental in changing the way people treat water and has helped save more than one billion litres of water.
Chennai Insider: Who are your major customers? What was the response when you first launched and how has it changed over the years?
Team WeGot: Our target audience is everyone who use water like Apartment communities, Commercial spaces, Industries, Malls, Hospitals etc. We acquired first few clients via personal network and later on people got to know by word of mouth, references etc. Some residential clients include Brigade, Appaswamy real estate, Casa Grande, Sobha Builders etc and commercial clients Infosys, Danfoss, Zoho, Ascendas, Google, etc.
Initially, the mindset of people to pay for water did not exist because the cost of water is cheap. But as the water crisis became more pronounced, people have started to realize the importance of having an actionable way to save water that makes everyone accountable for the water they consume through technology. There has been a major shift in the mindset of people and far greater acceptance. Currently our solution is adopted in 30k+ homes, 40 million+ sq. ft of commercial space having saved 1 Billion+ liters of water already.
Chennai Insider: What is unique about your product as compared to others available in the market?
Team WeGot: Defensibility is a function of time and we have taken several concrete steps to help maintain the head start we have as the early movers in this space.
- We are the only product that tracks water at all stages of the lifecycle (source to consumption) and have a solution for each specific problem point in the water cycle.
- We have innovated on the business model to increase adoption. We give the product for free and charge a nominal monthly subscription.
- We have the smallest sensors available, thereby making it the easiest sensor to install. The entire solution is a simple plug and play model, which will help us scale faster.
- Our Wireless LoRa sensors come with remote set up feature that makes it flexible
- Our product is built on IoT first platform, unlike other water meters that use IoT technology only for some functionalities
- Ultrasonic water meters are flexible for mounting in all directions, are dirt resistant and come with negligible pressure loss
Chennai Insider: Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?
Team WeGot: Currently WEGoT is based out of Chennai, with its presence in Hyderabad, Bangalore, NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.
Chennai is the best place because having grown up in Chennai and being witness to acute water shortages, the founders of WEGoT wanted to contribute and help the city solve its water shortage. Having understood the promise of IoT, the group ventured to develop a sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT) device and a software platform that can be connected to water inlet pipes.
Chennai Insider: Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you’re looking to raise?
Team WeGot: Last funding was in 2019 – $2 Million Seed Funding
The funding was led by GoFrugal, Shyam Shekar from iThought, and Brigade Enterprises.
Chennai Insider: Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?
Team WeGot: 4 engineers (Vijay Krishna, Mohamed Mohideen, Abilash Haridass and Sundeep Donthamshetty) with absolutely different yet complimentary skill sets founded WEGoT. The physical product itself was built by Mohideen & Vijay, with their prior experience in manufacturing industrial automation systems, while Sundeep, with his 15-year rich experience in software engineering, built the cloud architecture and application to enable the IoT platform. Abilash, with his deep connects in the industry, ensures that this essential solution reaches the minds and hands of as many people as possible.
Chennai Insider: What are your future plans for WEGoT? Where do you see it in the next few years?
Team WeGot: WEGoT is already on a mission to save 10 Billion liters of water by 2022. For the near future WEGoT aims to build industry specific customized dashboards and features that support different buildings and property types like Hotels, Malls, Hospitals, IT Parks, and Factories etc. at the same time strengthening our SaaS platform for automated recurring payments. We aim to widen our market presence in regions such as Pune, Mumbai, NCR, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. We are also looking at entering select international markets such as Middle East, Europe and Australia.
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