Monday
April 19
2021

Press Release: SENTRY Announces Seed Stage Investment From Factor[E] Ventures and SKion Water

When things go wrong with wastewater treatment, they have the potential to go horrifically, viscerally, stenchingly and expensively wrong. And this happens far too often because plant operators just don’t have good, real-time data.

A water technology team focused on making the world better through smarter decisions in water and wastewater treatment, SENTRY is solving that problem at scale with biofilm-based water quality sensors and real-time actionable information. It’s a low-complexity, reliable solution that will de-stress and support operators who want to optimize wastewater treatment.

Complementary partnerships

Their recently closed Series A fundraising round and partnership with Factor[e] Ventures and SKion Water will help them enter new markets and scale much more quickly.

They’ll be able to achieve things with Factor[e] and SKion Water that would be impossible for them to do on their own. For instance, the market opportunity in the developing world is enormous, and they know that wastewater treatment issues are universal. They’re still learning how to engage with stakeholders in the developing world. Factor[e]’s focus has always been on brokering technology into emerging markets. Their relationship with them will allow them to go into frontier markets in an informed way, leverage Factor[e]’s existing relationships and partnerships, and even work with some of their portfolio companies.

Their partnership with SKion Water, a global water technology platform, will help them in unique and complementary ways. Working as a portfolio company under the SKion Water brand will give them a lot more visibility and a credibility that their team and portfolio companies have built up over years.

Innovation is about people above all else

Geographically it doesn’t matter who they work with. They can ship their sensors to anyone in the world. It’s all been designed to be very simple. Through that mindset, they love working with forward-thinking operators and process teams who want a tool to complement the great work they’re already doing. SKion Water and Factor[e] both understand that for innovation to work, you’ve got to start with the right people.

North America has been a great proving ground for them and their longest running commercial deployment is a town over from their headquarters. So, they’re very happy to work in developed and frontier markets with new and similar challenges. If someone has a desire to treat wastewater or generate biogas in a more efficient way, they’re geographically agnostic. Their massively ambitious goal is to have biology in their sensors providing information that allows for smarter decisions for wastewater treatment infrastructure globally, whether its biogas generation, energy savings, or chemical dosing at regular wastewater treatment plants.

They don’t want to be seen as an innovative technology because that term comes with a perception of risk. They want to be part of standard operating protocols.

To date, they’ve deployed 80 systems globally, and they’re shooting for 400 by the end of 2023. This Series A investment and partnership will play an integral role in helping them do that. SENTRY will also continue to actively explore new projects and partnerships as they continue scaling with the help of Factor[e] and SKion Water.

Photo courtesy of Tontama Sanou.

Source: PR Newswire (link opens in a new window)

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WASH
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