 Hi everybody, my name is Sabine Staufer and I'm the CMO and co-founder of HydroLoop. So HydroLoop, you actually won the best of CES on the Engadget last year, right? Yes. So that must have been a good boost for a lot of people contact you since then. What has been happening over the past year? Well, where can I start? This really was, you know, we won four awards of which, you know, the top one, the best of the best. This has, like, catapulted us all over the world, literally. There isn't a language that hasn't written about us. So this was a marketing budget, you know, that we didn't have, but still we've been catapulted all over the world. Since then, well, basically we were on the news everywhere. We were in magazines everywhere, on blogs, on blogs. We've had thousands and thousands and thousands of people sending us emails. Our inbox was exploding. And I can tell you, we were not prepared for anything like this. So we had to really scale up our company, which is what we've been doing. But of course it takes a bit of time. We had to get more staff in and we had to get production up, you know, scaling that up. And of course we, yeah, we need financing to do all that. Well, that all worked out. So we've done all that. And since then, well, we've produced new products that we came out with this year at CES. And this is also one of the things that, you know, we really want to do. So we've come up with the HydroLoop H600, which is the bigger brother of the one that we came out with last year, which we launched globally at CES. We came up with the HydroLoop Cascade, another product, which is basically the product that is like a modular, skatable, HydroLoop that you can actually use for larger operations like in commercial buildings or a sport club or, you know, so we can treat thousands and tens of thousands of litres of water instead of just in a home. What else has happened? We've won several awards after that. We've been to the king and queen in the Netherlands for lunch because, you know, they wanted to congratulate us on the innovation. I became, I got a prize in the European Union. I became a, I got an award for a female entrepreneur for sustainable innovation in Brussels. And so basically you have, without filters, you can recycle water in residential at home. But now you're also doing small hotels and stuff like that. Yes, so we started off with a product that was just for like the family home for like four or five people. And from demand, basically from the, you know, from the market, we found out that there are bigger families that use more water. But also we have families like in the US or in like Middle East. As a family, they use like so much more water than, for example, we do in Europe. So that's why we decided to make a larger version. So that is either for families that use more water or for larger families. And also, yeah, there was a large request for larger operations. So that's why we created the Cascade and we can do, well, we basically say every building has, every building where people wash their hands or they take a shower or they take a bath and they flush a toilet or there's a garden. That's where a Hyderloop can come in. We can collect the hand basin and the toilet or sorry, not the toilet, the shower water. So the lightly contaminated gray water, as it's called, treat it and disinfect it. So, you know, it looks, you know, it isn't drinking water, but it looks like it. It doesn't smell. And hey, you know, what are you going to reuse it for? You're going to reuse it in your toilet and your washing machine and your garden. You don't need tap water for that. You need really nice, safe, recycled water for that. And that's what we do and we do it without the filters and the membranes. And that's why we're winning these awards as well, because what we wanted to make and it closes a, you know, a consumer product that is fit and forget. So you put it in your home and people, best thing they say is they don't even notice it's there. You know, so you don't even have to switch it on. You know, it needs to be connected to our server because all systems are connected to the central server. And then the software is actually loaded up into the system. And then it will just do a little test and then it will start to work. And for the rest of this fully automatic, you don't need to do anything yet. You save water, you save energy, you reduce your wastewater emission and you reduce your carbon footprint and you save money and lots of money in some areas. And in some countries the return on investment will be longer, but life isn't all about return on investment, I always say. So since last year and actually since when are you launching these? Are you selling them? It looks like mass production. You're making them in Holland? Yes, yes. This is a very nice. This is a shared smart factory in the Netherlands called Technologies Edits. And this is perfect for startups and scale-ups like us. You know, so it's like your own factory yet they produce for other people as well for other companies. And it's very scalable. So they do the whole supply chain, the production, the assembly and everything, transportation companies inside the building as well. So it's very good. So as I said to you, you know, since CES last year, we've really had scale-up production, which is what we're doing. So this is actually the movie that you're seeing is still from a couple of months ago. But I can tell you there's a lot more people working there now. But not only here, I mean, we're also looking, of course, if you're looking at we are shipping all over the world because water is an issue. You know, water shortage is a worldwide problem. So we're shipping to Costa Rica, to Martinique, to Canada, to Middle East, to South Africa, to Namibia, to Vietnam. And of course, when you ship these units, you're shipping a lot of water, I was going to say, and a lot of air because, you know, of the tanks. So of course, what we're looking at is currently we're still making them in the Netherlands, but we are looking for partners in other countries. So we can actually assemble and produce them somewhere else and make them locally, which is good because then we will also create jobs in another area. And because their wages are probably also a lot lower than in the Netherlands, we can also bring down the cost of the units in other areas of the world. So what kind of price do you have right now? And is there any chance that this is going to be at the price point where this makes sense everywhere, even in more developing places where water is even more of an issue? Yeah. Well, I think water is an issue anywhere and it's independent or if people are rich or poor, it's going to hit all of us. But yes, we have a lot of, you know, we have a lot of things that we're aiming for. First of all, economies of scale. So, you know, at the moment, we're producing more, we're selling more. We at this moment, it's three continents in the world. We have partners because just to explain to you, how do we work? We have partners. So we find and we, you know, we accredit partners all over the world and they will actually market and sell our products in that part of the world. And they will also install them and they will service them. So by economy of scale, the more we sell, the cheaper, you know, the systems are going to be, the units are going to be. Also, what we're aiming for right now in the coming year is to really try and make the units a lot cheaper as well by changing things in it so we can produce it a lot cheaper. Then, as I said, we're going to produce in other countries and make them in these countries also cheaper because labor is cheaper. Then we also go having, you know, talks about private label. So that will also make the units cheaper. And then what we would like to be is the, you know, we'd like to remain like the Tesla offered the water recycling systems. So there will be, there will be many other companies that will come out with water recycling systems because this is really what we need in the world as well. There is a huge market out there and we invite them to do it, but we would like to be the best of the best always and then the nicest one. At the same time, we're talking to the World Bank already and it is our, you know, it is our mission that in 10 years time, no building will be built without its own decentralized water recycling system. And we want to make this available to the whole world. So of course we're looking, but that's going to take a few more years, you know, we can't do that right now with the company, but we are looking to make them in, you know, do that for licensing fees. So, and we will do that in countries like India or wherever where, you know, we will try and reach everybody. Can you talk a little bit about the invention or the engineering that went behind and how did you figure this out? You have like a background and doing this kind of technology? The answer is we have completely different backgrounds. I'm the co-founder, but the founder is Arthur Falkeester and his background is actually in television and media, but he was always very technical with all his camera and camera work, etc. So he would know his cameras inside out and as a kid he's always been interested in technology. So, but he wasn't schooled, he wasn't schooled in like the water technology or whatever. And we've actually been praised by several people that are like very, very top names in the water branch that this was actually so good because he wasn't trained in any way in the water branch. Therefore it made him completely look out of the box and look at very different ways of treating water. And as I told you before, you know, we wanted to create a consumer product and for a large market. So you need to make something that is good looking, has to have nice design. It has to be affordable and it has to take a very little space because anything that is in competition is huge and large and, you know, you need to shed for a machine like that. And we wanted something compact and smart and it has to be very, very low on maintenance. So those were the design goals basically of the system. And because we wanted very low maintenance, we knew that we couldn't use filters for membranes because they work fine. You can imagine water is pushed through a membrane, works fine, but they clog and you can't clean them and everybody in the water industry knows that. So that means that you have a lot of maintenance and it's dirty and it makes it expensive. So that's why we said we have to make something without membranes and obviously chemicals is another solution, but we think that is not very sustainable. So basically by trial and error Arthur, I lost him several years in the garage. This is a garage story. I'm not only the CMO co-founder, I'm also married to the founder. So I lost him a couple of years in the garage and he, by trial and error, by reading about it, by researching, by trying all these different techniques for water treatment, that's step by step he came to what has become now. And basically what we've done is it is six existing techniques, sedimentation, flotation, dissolved air flotation, foam fractionation, a biological treatment and the final step is UV light whereby we disinfect the water and it is, as I said, clean, clear and safe and certified, by the way, to use again. And this way we have a self-cleaning system, we created it, so you don't need to clean it, you don't need to do anything, as I said, it does its job. So you can recycle water from, let's say, a shower or from potentially washing machine to use again in the washing machine or in a toilet or in a garden, right? But it's not for drinking, right? No. The reason why we do it is that is another step that you have to make and it is quite complex and you probably need filters and membranes again. It can be done and there are machines that do it. But we look at it this way, if you look on the one hand, if you look at your water usage and let me give an example of Europe, for example. In Europe, people use about 130 litres inside the house per person per day, 130 litres. Now, this goes up into shower, bath, washing machine, toilet flushing and a little bit for the garden, let's say. And in the kitchen, for food preparation and drinking water. Now, if you look at, if you start to recycle your bath, shower and washing machine water, this water and you clean it and you use it for toilet flushing and washing machine again, that kind of evens itself out. So it's the same amount of water that comes in from the shower and the washing machine and you clean that and that with that you use it for the toilet and the washing machine and you have a little surplus over for, for example, your garden. And this way, so if you just do this, you save almost 50% of your whole complete water usage. So basically 50%, you know, you use 45, it's 45, so you use 45% less water, you reduce your wastewater, you know, wastewater emission with 45%. So that is, there is so much to be made with that. And then if we, if we were to make it, you know, like drinking tap water again, for those few liters that you are drinking, it doesn't make sense. That's why we chose to do it this way. So it basically told you about 130 liters, that is what normally people in Europe use per person per day. And if you have a hydro loop, you use only 74 liters. So it's almost half. It makes a tremendous effect if we start doing this, if we start implementing this in new constructions and this is, you know, what we are advocating right now and we're doing a lot more of it now already starting in the Netherlands, but this is going to, we're going to roll this out everywhere to build every building recycle ready so that every building is every new construction is made with decentral water recycling. You know, the plumbing made so that it, you know, it is ready for a decentral water recycling because you are building for the future, you're not building for the coming five or 10 years, you're building for 100 years. So if all the plumbing is made, and then within the next, you know, in the coming 10 years, we hope that every new building will have this implemented standard, just like, you know, air conditioning and and and everything else that heat pump and whatever. And at the same time in the coming years, every building existing building will have a refurbishment, either in, you know, or just a bathroom or the whole building. And then again, that will be an excellent time to then do the plumbing correctly, and also install decentral water recycling system so that in 30 years time when we have 2 billion more people on the planet that will be we will be using less water than we are using right now. That's that's what we're aiming for and that's the power of decentral water recycling. So you're talking about people in every language, every word reaching out and everything. Are you saying anything about how many you've shipped so far? Hopefully it's like growing fast. Yeah, I can tell you it's growing fast. You know, we we only came to market, you know, we globally launched our product last last January. Of course, we had fuel tested and everything we came to market in November 2017. So it's 2018 19 we sold units and you know, we feel tested a lot. We've tweaked, you know, we've made everything, you know, we're now we're now working towards version 2.0, you know, so we've had different versions, upgrades, etc. What we are aiming for is that this year we're going to do 500% of what we did last year, and the year after we're going to do 500% more again. You have to understand that also this is not a product that somebody calls you and says okay, can you ship me one today because I need it tomorrow. 90% of all our business is new new construction. So we're talking now about projects that you know I mean we're talking now then you know that they're still on the drawing table is the architecture time and then because by the time it's built we're a year and a half two years later. But I can tell you honestly that we, I don't know if you know that you know we feature in a beautiful Netflix documentary it's called Brave Blue World with Matt Damon and Liam Neeson in it amongst others. And we are being shown as one of one of the solutions for, you know, to solve the water crisis in the world. And since this is showing in October. This is the second wave after we had CES in January. And at this moment in time we have 500 potential partners that are, you know, that are wanting to become our partners that we still have to look at and talk and discuss with etc. So, and we are doing writing proposals now for projects and I'm talking about, you know, Canada 1400 houses, Johannesburg 900 houses, Middle East 2000 houses and more so these are the projects that we are we will be doing and we but we will be delivering only in 2022. So, on the internet there is a, you have a video that shows how it works. And with all these quantities that you've shipped so far is there do you have like a way to measure the quality of the water that comes out or do people do that or do you measure it and so basically it's working that you have six steps right and Yeah, it really works and the quality of the water that comes out is totally usable for what needs to be used. Yes, yes, of course, well, you know what is very important of course is that you know it is safe, the water has to be safe. So everywhere in the world there are standards here in Europe very soon a new European standard will come out. But for example, one of the highest standards so one of the most difficult to reach so to speak is the NSF 350 standard in the US. And we're very happy to say that we're certified for that standard. So that means to give you an idea that our system was tested by an official laboratory stress tested for 27 weeks, weeks continuously every day. There is a report every day on, you know, and it is like a synthetic mix that goes in there and it's very heavy, you know, with soap and hair and dust and shaving foam and everything you can think of. And with that our system is tested for 27 weeks. And they test the water quality constantly. And you always have to be in certain, you know, measurements kind of, you know, a bandwidth that that is for them is is is okay. We are well within that bandwidth. And so we don't monitor the water when it's coming out every single second, we are certified. So it means that the system is safe and it can be sold almost everywhere in the world now with this certification. And you have to remember that you're not drinking it, you know, so you use it in your toilet you use it for the washing machine you use it in your garden you can top up your swimming pool with it. So you're not drinking it. But I can, I can assure you that if you were to drink it, you don't get ill because it is disinfected. So there is no bacteria no viruses in it. And which part of the nine, the six steps is a UV disinfection right so is there a last one. Is this something about the speed that you can recycle water is maybe is just for a little family or the big one that you're doing now how fast does it recycle is it big enough for like a hotel with like 100 rooms or maybe you can just buy four of them or 10 of them or something in the hotel. Exactly. Yeah. So basically, the treatment takes a certain time. And we usually say it takes about five hours for a full tank to really treat itself and be be ready for for usage. If you look at just a normal family life. How does it go people have a shower in the morning somewhere there's a load of washing being done. Some people have a shower in the evening. And this gives plenty of time for the machine to clean it to offer it as treated water. And this goes on and on and on. If you're looking at larger operations like a hotel as you say or like, you know, we're doing quite a few sports clubs now we've done the first student flat with 350, you know, students living there. So we offer the cascade the hydro cascade and I can see if otherwise, if I can quickly show you what it what a cascade looks like. And so let me quickly go through my presentation with all these kind of stuff. And there what we can do is that we we can treat a lot more water and I'll show you, oh, hang on, this is just very just briefly. This is visual. On the left you see how, you know, the water with the official submix goes in. And on the right you see what it looks like after the treatment. And this is the certificate. So this is the 300 units, you know, that we've been selling in all these countries like Middle East and Slovenia, you know, since 2018. And what this is like the awards and the UN SDGs that we kind of, you know, contribute to. And this is the 600. So it looks similar to the 300 but it's just double the width. So this can treat already more but this is still for relatively small operations. But now this is the cascade. And this is and now here you see seven but the student house I was talking to you about. That was, we have 14 units there. And we're now doing a proposal for a student flat in Berlin and there will be 28 of them. And here it works like this. The first one fills up and the moment is full, you know, it starts its treatment and then the second will get the water, the treated water of the water that needs treating. And as the moment is full it starts cleaning and that kind of continues all the way and we make measurements, you know, we kind of look at every single this is made to measure and scalable. So we look at every single situation how many people live there, you know, and then we can come up with the how big a cascade you need. Nice. Hopefully. So I already asked it earlier right but the kind of pricing and but there are some markets that I'm thinking about for example that could be very relevant. When you think about CS it would be Las Vegas they have a problem with water over there. And sometimes they're not even allowed to to water the golf courts. And this is. And that's many of the Southwestern states of America, for example, you know, and this is actually one of the areas that we had in mind really when we started the product, we started developing the hydro loop, because, you know, you need a few elements and here we thought here we have areas where there is a lot of drought, people have a sustainable mind in general, also in these areas and and water is expensive and are not allowed to do certain things. And the beauty with our system is you have to take a shower, you have to take a shower because with that you create the water that you can do the other things with. So it's not like like in some countries like in Cape Town when they were coming up to day zero people were only allowed a one minute shower. Now that is short I can tell you, you know, so because they were only used to allow to allow to use 50 liters per person per day. But if as I say, if you start to recycle your water with it with a hydro loop, you know you actually you can have that shower water and use it again. So it's very easy to comply with regulations like that. And with your app, you can also choose how you want to reuse that water. So, you know, you can say okay I want to use it inside or you can say today it's a hot day. I want to use it all for my garden so it gives you that kind of liberty. And then it's recycled water so you're allowed to do it. So is the next project you're going to are you going to clean saltwater what's it called the desalinated. No, that's not your project. Now what we're going to do is we're going to first we're going to sell loads of these we're going to do all these projects. We're going to scale up even more. You know, we have quite a strong mission and vision you know that in 10 years time no building will be built without its own descent for water recycling so we have quite a lot of work on our hands. And we still do a lot of development so I you know we just came out with a cascade in the 600. We're hoping end of this year to come out with the smaller brother of the hydro loop 300 which is the 150, and this will be integrated in the wall, and this will be for apartments. Many people live in a small apartment they don't have a lot of you know floor space, and so they don't want one of those, you know, one of those units that you see behind me, but they don't need that size because they are with less people. So this would be a system that is fully integrated with the flushing system of the toilet. So that is coming up and we have quite a few more products but all on on the basis of what we've created now. And do what do what the cities do right now in terms of water recycling do they do they recycle water from the sewer or not really they just. Well from the sewer let's not. No no well you know the sewer is mixed so that is actually the black water and the lightly contaminated gray water that's why we're saying break that up. So we say collect your rainwater in a water tank if you have a garden collect your rainwater, so it is slow released so here in the Netherlands a lot of rainwater goes immediately to to the sewer and the sewers are overloaded because there's just too much water. So everybody should collect their rainwater and use that in their garden but time released so you collect it and you use it later. And then in your house you recycle your water bar shower washing machine and use that again. And also then you have less taxing on the on the on the sewage system because now the sewage companies they have a big issue because we all have a shower at the same time. So all that water comes in at the same time so if it is time released again. They they appreciate it very much. So what you see in cities you see all these smart cities and you know sustainable cities it's all coming up. But you're seeing that now we're starting to starting to think about water. So we're having to collect the stormwater because we're getting a lot of water at the same time so this is important. And slowly people starting to realize that we we we should use our water a lot wiser and use it twice. This is what we say be wise and use water twice. So just recently I did a video with talking about the mission to Mars because humans are going to go to Mars soon with Elon Musk and everything. And when they get there they also need to recycle water like crazy. So I guess they will recycle even more than you right but can can you get to the even next level you talk about 85%. What would be required to do more and more and like recycle I don't know 95% or something. I don't know but I think we're going to go there with Elon Musk. I want to go there. I don't want that picture. And you'll be the first to have the higher loop on Mars picture of hydro loop on Mars functioning. But yeah we'll we'll have to see but I know there is a lot of developments there as well but. I think I think we have enough on our plate right now if we can fulfill our mission and have what we have at the moment we'll do very well and we will grow will have a much larger R&D department. And so we'll be able to also, you know, make systems for that. All right so looking forward to the 150 series and the future and everything that you'll do and to to see more of the actual success. What really happens like how many people are going to get it is it going to be millions of people or you know what what you're going to be able to do with this. Well, I would I would like to ask you to invite me in sometime, half a year or a year, if you like. And I'll tell you all about it. So far I mean the last year so much has happened so and I, there's so much going on some things I can't talk to you about at the moment but if you like will talk again in in half a year in a year's time and I'll tell you all about it. Awesome and and your headquarters behind you looks really cool. Thank you very much. And by the way, I forgot to say that this week hydro loop Inc is also is also official so we already had an office, but we now also officially have a daughter company in the US hydro loop Inc. So and we have already quite a few staff and and hiring. So anybody interested hydro loop.com. Is it in the in the California area or somewhere else. Well, actually offices in Milwaukee. Why, because the water council is there. And, and there's some very exciting things happening there but I'm not let's say anything, but some very interesting things going to happen in Milwaukee but I have to say that the team that we have right now is is all over the states. So, you know, we're all working virtual though. So, and we all need to travel as well. So we have people in Philadelphia. We have somebody in Vegas. So, you know, they're not really sitting in the office. And as you were saying earlier, your technology is coming to to Africa to to India and everywhere. China everywhere. Not yet. Not yet. I think we need a really, really, really good partner there that would protect us from, you know, people because we know that the Chinese are well known for trying to copy of course we have patents and everything but still we would need a really nice good big partner and we are approached by a large company, Institute, whatever. That would then really take over that that area, and they would be so important and big that you wouldn't want to, you know, then copy our product if it was there so if it is in their portfolio because then you have their legal department against you. Thank you very much. Thanks for it was a pleasure. It was a real great pleasure. And, and, well, I, as I say, I hope we speak again in half a year and a year's time. Cool. And in the comments people can write if they think you should be also the best of CS 2021. Oh, okay. Okay, well, that'd be great. Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you.