World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011

Today it was announced that TaKaDu was recognized as a Technology Pioneer 2011 by the World Economic Forum. You can read their blog here.

In the Press Release we’ve made the first announcement of utilities using the TaKaDu solution.

The award comes in TaKaDu’s second year of operation, during which it has launched its service with some of the world’s leading water utilities, such as Thames Water in the UK, Hagihon in Israel, Sydney Water and Yarra Valley Water in Australia, Wiener Wasserwerke in Austria, Evides Waterbedrijf in the Netherlands and others.

Hope to share some of the great upcoming news with you soon…

Are Smart Metering and Water Infrastructure Monitoring the same thing?

A question we often get asked is whether Water Infrastructure Monitoring and Smart Water Metering are the same. While the straight-forward answer is ‘no’, there are definitely interesting links and interrelationships between the two. TaKaDu believes that the world of water metering is set to undergo a revolution rather than an evolutionary growth, and Water Infrastructure Monitoring is one of the key enablers of this revolution.

Countering The Infrastructure Deficit – The Software Version

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the growing infrastructure deficit. Across the US, Canada and Europe, experts and policy makers share a growing concern around the many billions required to catch up with this deficit, or in layman’s words: Public infrastructure is aging and decaying. While there may be disagreement about the actual extent of the deficit, there is no arguing that it is there to stay – and that some types of infrastructure age with less grace than others.

An emerging category named ‘Water Infrastructure Monitoring’ carries the promise of optimizing – through the use of advanced software and data collection – the process of pinpointing the assets that need to be serviced, and taking corrective action, thereby prolonging asset life and diverting scarce budgets to the right places

Water PLUS – Keys to Building a Scalable Water Business (Part 2)

This is the last of a two-part series by Guy Horowitz, TaKaDu’s VP of Marketing, about scaling a water technology business.
In my previous post I introduced the PLUS framework for water-technology scalability, and expanded upon the first two attributes: Software and Usability. Let’s explore the other two:Leverage and Partners.

Water PLUS – Keys to Building a Scalable Water Business (Part 1)

This is the first of a two-part series by Guy Horowitz, TaKaDu’s VP of Marketing, about scaling a water technology business. How can one build a scalable business in a space characterized by large water project one-offs? Rather than using “cleantech 2.0″ Guy’s answer has four pillars: Partners, Leverage, Usability and Software. Forget about Cleantech 2.0 – this is the Water PLUS.

Water is not the new oil

We’ve all heard or read that “water is the new oil”, often as a pundit’s shorthand for some market prediction. Drinking water, we are told by analysts and environmentalists, is a rare, limited resource which the world is rapidly running out of. It’s just like oil.

Well, it’s not.

Charting Our Water Future: Making Water Everyone’s Business

Going through “Charting Our Water Future”, a report by the 2030 water resources group, which, as its name implies, is looking at the future of water supplies in 2030.
One of the views that caught my eye in the report was the gap between how policy makers see the priority of making water investments and evaluating these water investments from an economic viewpoint.

Let’s say a country is facing water shortages. Should it invest in creating more water (desalination, for instance), improving its water infrastructure (investing in groundwater production and pipe networks) or try to get more efficiency gains (e.g. scheduling agricultural irrigation)?

Schneider Electric’s Smart Water vision – an interview with Pascal Bonnefoi

We had a chance to conduct an interview with Pascal Bonnefoi, the water segment director at Schneider Electric. We discussed smart water, Schneider’s approach to the water infrastrcuture space and how it relates to other initiatives Schneider is leading, on both the consumer side and the supply-demand side of a smart electric grid. Schneider Electric’s water segment activity is most interesting in light of Schneider’s core business, as a global specialist in energy management.

Thought. Provoked.

Last week TaKaDu was included in a European press tour, with journalists coming from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The best questions are often raised in such a forum, and we wanted to share some of our insights about why water infrastructure monitoring matters even in a ‘perfect’ world, where all pipes can be replaced.

It’s Time for the Smart Water Grid

It’s been a great year for the Smart Grid. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, analysts, journalists, and regulators can’t stop talking about it. Experts are competing to project greater market potential. Zpryme puts the Smart Appliance market alone at $15.2bn by 2015, Lux Research talks about $15.8bn, Cisco estimates the overall opportunity at $100bn and Pike research uses a whopping $200bn figure.

Giants like Cisco and IBM have set aside billions to fund Smart Grid activities. The US government has kept up, allocating hefty tax credits and incentives for Smart Grid development, with $3.4bn from the stimulus bill granted to 100 smart-grid initiatives last October. VCs are investing heavily, as these three lists show. But while we anticipate the first Smart Grid IPO (market-permitting) from Silver Spring Networks, we’ve got to wonder out loud: Why isn’t water being served at this party?