Caddington-based Water-to-Go Ltd surpassed its crowdfunding target of £125,000 (US$ 210,000) on Crowdcube and closed to £167,000 with more than three weeks left for further investment. This was after major high street banks refused to lend against property assets valued at several multiples of the requested funding amount.
Per the campaign’s website, Water-to-Go is a personal water filtration system contained in a convenient lightweight bottle. The system will filter any non-salt water source, anywhere in the world. The 3-in-1 internal filter uses nano technology developed for NASA. This technology eliminates over 99.9% of all bacteria, viruses, Chlorine and Fluoride and heavy metals such as Lead and other contaminants such as pesticides. Each filter delivers 200 liters of clean safe drinking water. The system is equally efficient on tap water, here and abroad, or on rain and even stream water.
Because WTG bottles have been developed to be reusable, use materials selected to be BPA free and as the system delivers filtered water at under 4p per liter, Water-to-Go products are both environmentally friendly and economical. Tests to international standards have been carried out and results confirmed in the USA, India and UK.
Although the filter process’ patent is still held by the inventor in the USA, Water-to-Go successfully negotiated a ten year exclusive sales and distribution agreement for the technology, and entered the European market in December 2012. Subsequent to this launch, in 2014, the company was granted exclusive global distribution rights also for an initial period of ten years. The contract covers all international territories apart from USA, Canada, China and Thailand. The new contract in its entirety would be available for review subject to a Non Disclosure Agreement.
In addition, Water-to-Go has done the following:
Established the 750 mls unit with over 100 stockists in UK and appointed 8 distributors.
- Launched 5 web sites with integrated e-commerce platforms.
- Sold 19,000 units, with pre-orders committed in excess of 100,000 units via distributors.
- Delivered successful, cost effective, Marketing and Social campaigns, supported by a strong PR presence.
- Worked with high profile sports events and celebrities such as Sir Ian Botham’s Sri Lanka projects raising funds for underprivileged children.
- Demonstrated the scalability of the business by designing and developing two new products which are targeted to address major additional markets
After just 18 months trading, the company had secured rights to a unique, patented, developed for NASA water-filtration technology, developed a strong social media presence including numerous testimonials and signed distributors in 9 countries around the World. With a new product line about to be launched and discussions with more than 20 other parties taking place, there was a pressing need for working capital.
The company is led by Dave Shanks, who has over twenty years experience successfully running several companies. His belief in the company and the product that has the potential to bring safe clean drinking water to anyone anywhere in the World meant that he was willing to put his home on the line to fund a business plan that seeks to deliver 400% growth by the end of 2015.
After discussions with several high street banks that continued for over a year and a half, none of them came back with agreeable terms despite the value of assets being offered as security being several times greater than the value of the loan.
As a result of this setback, Mr. Shanks chose the crowdfunding platform to raise funds. With three weeks still left the initial sum has been raised and the company is enjoying the benefits of over-funding.
Shanks stated, “I can highly recommend crowdfunding as an alternative to bank lending. Not only is the process relatively quick, greater numbers of investors increases the number of advocates for our products and the knowledge and experience that the company can call upon.”
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