Sequoia Surge, Omidyar back smart water purifier startup Drink Prime

Bengaluru headquartered Waterwala Labs, which owns and operates subscription based smart water purifier startup Drink Prime, has raised Rs 21.55 crore (about $2.9 million) in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge.

Omidyar Network subsidiary ON Mauritius, investment firm AL Trust, along with angel investors Ramakrishnan Ramamurthi, Anand Ladsariya and Nikhil Jaisinghani participated in the round, regulatory filings show.

While Surge invested Rs 12.7 crore ($1.69 million), Omidyar put in Rs 8.18 crore ($1.1 million) and AL Trust infused Rs 38.39 lakh ($51,280), while the angels contributed Rs 10 lakh ($13,357) each, it said. Post deal, Surge holds 18.43%, Omidyar 10.6% and AL Trust 1.37% ownership in the startup, it added.

The development was first reported by digital news website Entrackr.

Founded in 2016 by Manas Ranjan Hota and Vijender Reddy, Drink Prime leverages the capabilities of internet of things (IoT) technology and a seven-stage filtration process to make smart water purifiers that gives its customers access to clean drinking water on tap.

The water purifier, which is connected to the cloud, monitors water quality schedules, monthly payments and maintenance through a mobile app.

The company reportedly raised about Rs 3.6 crore in a seed funding round in April from a group of angel investors, including Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

Around the same time, Drink Prime was part of Surge’s third cohort.

The Surge O3 programme, which began on April 13, consisted of seven Indian companies and several others from Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Italy, Canada, Barbados and Sweden. The startups in the programme belong to diverse industry verticals, such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), development tools, consumer, food and beverage, education and health.

Its second cohort, held in October 2019, had 12 Indian startups, while its first batch consisted of eight.

Since its launch in January 2019, Surge says it has on boarded more than 110 founders from 52 startups across six countries. The programme invests $1 million-$2 million in each startup, and provides company building workshops and support from its community of mentors from startups such as Byju’s, Cred and Unacademy.