Boon, a startup working on water purification, monitoring, and dispensing products, on Wednesday, announced a $5 million Series A funding round in a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by Spanish bathroom products company Roca Group’s venture fund Roca Group Ventures, marking its first investment in an Indian startup.
Founded in 2015 by Vibha Tripathi and Advait Kumar, Boon, earlier known as Swajal, provides drinking water refilling solutions for the hospitality industry to help latter avoid plastic bottles and refill their water bottles in sustainable packaging. The startup also works with offices, hospitals, universities, airports, train stations and is backed by the Department of Science and Technology, Rajasthan State Government, SIDBI, United Nations Development Programme and Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP).
Speaking on the funding, Advait Kumar, Founder, Boon said “Water has taken a back seat and lately it has been feeling like we are passive spectators when it comes to water quality, plastic bottles or microplastics in drinking water. We are very excited to have partnered with Roca in our efforts to challenge the status quo of drinking water.”
Boon said it plans to deploy the capital to scale its AI-enabled WaterIoTech platform that allows water purifiers to monitor water quality.
“Their advanced approach to water purification with a clear inclination towards sustainability and technological innovation is commendable. We believe in Boon’s potential to revolutionise the WaterTech industry and we are eager to support their growth and expansion,” said Roca Group Ventures in a statement.
Set up in 2022, Roca Group Ventures focuses on startups developing innovative solutions that “increase productivity and improve the group’s value proposition to its customers,” it said.
India’s water and wastewater treatment market is expected to reach $2.08 billion by 2025 from $1.31 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7 per cent, as per a 2022 Frost & Sullivan report.