We are future focused
“We are investing at pace in the technologies we will need to solve the immense water challenges of the future and laying the foundations for our continued growth beyond 2025.”
Chief Executive Officer
The challenges we face around access to water are already immense and future projections paint a very clear picture: without action today to find the smart water solutions of the future, the world will face an intensifying water scarcity crisis by the end of this decade.
Estimates suggest that if we continue the current trajectory, demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030. By that time, nearly 4 billion people – just under half the world’s population – will be living in water stressed regions.
This is why we created Aliaxis Next in early 2022 as a new division expressly charged with finding, investing in, partnering with and enabling water tech entrepreneurs, start-ups and disruptive technologies that will have real societal impact on key water challenges we face: from water scarcity to floods.
Targeting key water challenges
Aliaxis Next focuses our investment and partnerships on four key areas:
- Sustainable water management
- Access to water
- Resilient water infrastructure
- Water for food
We engage with promising businesses in three ways, including acquiring companies outright, by taking significant minority stakes to help management teams make a reality of their business plans, or by funding entrepreneurs with great new ideas and helping them to build high-potential businesses.
By joining forces, we offer early-stage business the benefit of our scale and expertise to reach new markets and new investment opportunities.
Rapid portfolio growth
From leak detection within networks to water storm management solutions, Aliaxis Next had invested and partnered with 8 companies by the end of 2022. To date, it has invested over €60 million in ground-breaking disruptive start-ups.
We continue our search for new opportunities to grow our portfolio of exciting new businesses.
Overview of Aliaxis next eco-system
Focus on our acquisitions
2022 acquisitions included Opti, a US-based specialist in intelligent stormwater solutions helping to manage the potentially devastating effects of floods and extreme weather events.
And, at a time when an estimated 35% of all transported water is lost through network leakages, we were excited to acquire Aquarius Spectrum, a provider of advanced acoustic solutions to detect leaks and check the condition of network pipes.
Investing in partnerships
With 70% of the water withdrawn from the planet used to grow food, we were thrilled to partner with CropX, a leader in intelligent irrigation systems, and Freight Farms, whose vertical farming technology and software allows food to be grown locally using 90 to 99% less water than traditional farming methods.
Other investments included PulPac, a Swedish provider of water-saving, dry-fibre packaging technology, and HydroPoint, a provider of flow and leak monitoring systems for the building sector.
These deals complement partnerships that were already in place with Kando and APX10, two start-ups with digital solutions to smart water management.
Based in Israel, Kando is a wastewater intelligence company that harnesses AI and machine learning to support the water and public health sectors. APX10 is based in Denmark and provides a software solution to help utilities prioritise maintenance and repairs in water and wastewater networks, preventing water loss through leakages.
Open innovation
At Group level, Aliaxis invested in 2 VC Funds in 2022: BIV Fund, a recognised leader for seed capital to Water Tech start-ups and Emerald Technology Ventures, a pioneer in open innovation, providing corporations with insights into future sustainable markets. Through this last partnership, we are joining dozens of companies sharing ideas through the Emerald open innovation ecosystem and the relationship will help Aliaxis Next to identify further promising start-ups to invest in and incubate.
Green hydrogen ready
We exist not only to bring solutions to the world’s water challenges but also to accelerate the transition to clean energy and we are preparing to play an important role in the green hydrogen market.
Hydrogen has huge potential to replace fossil fuels as an energy source as the world moves towards meeting the UN’s 2050 net-zero target. It offers many advantages in a wide number of sectors whose electricity needs cannot be met by wind and solar alone. It can be used to store energy for long periods, can be transported over long distance by pipes or ships and burns clean, with water being the only by-product.
Our focus is on creating solutions to produce, store and transport green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable power with virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. We are also developing the “Power-to-X” ecosystem of products and applications, whether for use in hydrogen production plants or to get gas pipeline networks hydrogen-ready. Awarded the ‘H2-ready-100’ rating, our German products are ready to support delivering 100% pure hydrogen fuel through gas networks.
H2-ready pipes and fittings – we’re making the pipes and fittings that will make a reality of green hydrogen in the gas networks of the future.
Eyes on the future
A key part of our Growth with Purpose strategy is all about taking action between now and 2025 to create sustainable water and energy solutions and accelerating innovation across Aliaxis.
All the while – whether it’s through the work Aliaxis Next is doing to develop advanced water solutions for the future or what our local businesses are doing to speed the transition to clean energy – we also have our eyes firmly fixed on meeting challenges beyond 2025.
With our entire network of employees, shareholders, and customers, Aliaxis is leveraging its position to give water the attention it deserves in climate discussions, because every drop counts. Ultimately, we want future generations to be proud of the work we’ve done today.