Chennai-headquartered WEGoT, a next-gen IoT-based startup offering integrated water management solutions in real-time to prevent and address the water crisis, announced the closing of $2million seed funding on Wednesday. GoFrugal, Shyam Shekar from iThought and Brigade Enterprises led the round. Other participants were Vibhu Natarajan, Director at Grotech Landscapes, Rajagopal S from Entrust, Joydeep Ponugoti from Manbhum Constructions and Promod Kumar who are industry experts in the real estate technology and consumer industries. This capital infusion will be used predominantly to strengthen its IoT enabled product portfolio, scale its presence in India. The company also plans to invest in recruitment and hopes to double its employee base in the next 6-months for R&D and Sales and Marketing. “A recent water report states that 21 of the metro cities will run out of the water by 2020 and the majority of the Indian water resources will run dry by 2030. Given that residential usage accounts for a large portion of India's water consumption, water is one luxury that needs to be conserved efficiently. We need a technology that will make people liable for misuse of water. we got is addressing exactly this

issue and we are very confident that their breakthrough technology will disrupt the way we perceive this vital resource," said lead investor Kumar Vembu, Co-Founder of GoFrugal.

WEGoT’s sensor-based Internet of Things (IoT) device and a software platform VenAqua, helps to reduce the demand for water by more than 50 percent by tracking real-time flow. The granular data collected from various installations across residential and commercial buildings are analyzed and the insights are shared with the end-users on a mobile app. The solution is subscription-based, wherein the company gives the product free and users pay a nominal monthly fee of Rs 149 (Residential) / 20 paise per sq.ft apart from installation charges. “We see billboards and messages to save water everywhere, but nobody gives you an idea of where to start - a quantifiable and actionable way to do so. This is because we do not have access or insight into the right data to take the next step. Traditional water meters detect air passing through pipes that cause errors in reading. In addition, leakages, abnormal usages & open taps are not detected by traditional water meters. WEGoT has developed a high precision smart water meter that can provide data, which is of interest to multiple stakeholders: utilities, homeowners, insurance companies, maintenance providers, facility managers, government organizations, research foundations. Our solution is compatible with existing plumbing design and can be customized based on the requirement and helps reduce the demand for water drastically.” said Vijay Krishna, CEO, and Co-Founder of WeGot.
The team said that because water is priced cheaply compared to other resources like electricity or fuel, we don’t take cognizance of the possible water crisis in the future. "Water conservation will be a major issue in the coming years and we have an immense growth opportunity by helping design more water-efficient buildings. Our vision is to change the way people and buildings use and experience this precious resource by implementing our smart water management solution across a million houses and save 10 billion liters of water in next two years. Our funding from such prominent investors is just a testimony of that belief,” said Abilash Haridass, Co-Founder and Chief of Growth & Strategy of WEGoT.