Foto (left to right): Sabrina Dietz (Key Account Manager, Pluvion) und Phillip Grimm (co-founder, Pluvion), Benjamin Wochner (Senior Investment Manager, Kopa Ventures) und Tom Freyberg (Content Director Aquatech Global Events).

Three reasons why Pluvion is coming back to Amsterdam

AQUATECH Amsterdam is characterized above all by its exclusive side events such as the Innovation Forum, Integrated Leader Forum and Innovator Breakfast from the European Water Tech Accelerator, as well as the Digital Water Pavilion from SWAN. The focus here is on digitalization, scaling and financing. All topics that are highly relevant and essential for water tech start-ups and innovators.

Three reasons why Pluvion is coming back to Amsterdam:

1. International network

International pioneers in the field of digitalization such as the water suppliers Canal Isabel II from Madrid, Brabant Water and Vitens from the Netherlands and De Watergroep from Brussels gathered in Amsterdam. They shared their experiences with their digital twins at SWAN's Digital Water Pavilion and discussed them with the audience. Our highlight: All utilities agreed and confirmed that they would like to have new functionalities integrated into their existing platforms. This confirms Pluvion's business model and opens up the possibility of far-reaching partnerships. In addition, Jorge Helmbrecht (Xylem Vue) and Slavco Velickov (Bentley Systems) presented their digital platform solutions and impressively demonstrated that some utilities have already connected thousands of smart sensors to their platform to optimize operations and save costs. Another highlight for Pluvion was the great organization and networking work of our colleagues from SWAN. They are doing an excellent job and are thus advancing digitalization in the water industry. A big thank you also goes to Tom Freyberg (Content Director Aquatech Global Events), who has an incredible network and was able to connect us with many good contacts. In addition, you can also meet other renowned speakers such as Will Sarni (Water Foundry) or Benjamin Tam (Isle Utilities) and successful serial entrepreneurs such as our good colleague Wayne Byrne on the stages.

2. Financing

The topic of financing is not mentioned at most water fairs. You get the feeling that nobody wants to talk about it, even though it is the basis for new innovations and start-ups. This is fundamentally different at the AQUATECH Innovation Forum. This is where international investors such as Burnt Island Ventures, PureTerra, MEKOROT, Momentum Global Ventures and kopa Ventures come together. We had several highlights in this area. We were particularly pleased that our investor kopa Ventures, in the person of Benjamin Wochner, took part in the panel discussion “New money, new thinking?” and emphasized the importance of the water sector. Venture capital is highly efficient and opportunistic and can accelerate the transformation in the water industry. An important prerequisite for venture capital funding is a highly scalable product and a good go-to-market strategy. Another highlight was meeting Anna Huber from World Economic Forum and learning more about the UpLink program.

3. Side events

The side events make AQUATECH special and valuable. In addition to the Innovation Forum already mentioned, it was above all the Innovators Breakfast of the European Water Tech Accelerator, which was excellently organized by Gaëtane Suzenet and Jacob Tompkins. We were delighted to be invited to this exclusive networking event and to have the opportunity to network with the digital pioneers of the water industry. Among them were not only many potential partners but also political decision-makers. We are already looking forward to the next events of this kind and will definitely take part in the Master Classes of the European Water Tech Accelerator.