Impact X Venture Studios: Empowering diverse founders to build sustainable solutions in the water industry & beyond

Impact X Venture Studio is a corporate backed initiative focused on diverse founders building high growth tech startups looking to address the worlds sustainability challenges. The Impact X Venture Studio is a new initiative that concentrates on building startups in the growth areas where we know capital is searching for solutions.

The venture studio team have worked hard to make the recruitment process as accessible and inclusive as possible. We are looking to take three successful companies into the venture studio who will all join us at the water innovation festival, a week long innovation event providing unparalleled access to industry experts and operators. Leading up to the innovation festival we will host two pitch events to help us discover all three studio companies. The deadline for applications is the 23rd of June.

Problem statements

The Venture studio team has been collaborating with Spring innovation and the water companies across the UK to agree and validate three high value customer opportunities and problem statements. These have been thoroughly tested with water companies and industry experts. These are the challenges for which we are seeking solutions and are keen to hear from innovators who are either tackling these issues directly or have solution and disruptive ways of thinking about the problems. It is NOT mandatory that you are already working in the water industry, and we very much welcome solutions from different industries.

1: Minimise adverse impacts from polluting discharges to the water environment and improve water quality from all stakeholders

Water companies, industry, agriculture, and individual households all contribute to river water pollution through the release of a range of contaminants. This contributes to the pollution of rivers, which ultimately affects the quality of the water and has negative impacts on human health and aquatic ecosystems. There is a need for a comprehensive approach that takes into account all stakeholders to reduce the overall pollution in rivers understanding the total lifecycle of water ultimately improving the quality of water for all.

2: Accelerate the roll out and improve the maintenance of capital intensive solutions through innovative financing or customer billing models

Innovation in capital-intensive solutions (such as sensors and smart meters) drive progress; however, the adoption, implementation and ongoing maintenance of such solutions are often hindered by financial barriers. The high upfront costs associated with capital-intensive solutions delays the realization of benefits such as improved efficiency, increased productivity, and reduced costs. To address this problem, there is a need for innovative financing, billing and maintenance models that can accelerate the rollout of innovative capital-intensive solutions.

3: Better engage customers to reduce demand and increase the perceived value of water helping to lower the emissions of the water industry 

The UK needs to reduce water demand while maintaining high levels of service to customers. Despite initiatives to promote water conservation, customer engagement remains low, leading to high water consumption and increased strain on water resources. Furthermore, many customers perceive water as a cheap and abundant resource, leading to a lack of appreciation of its value and a need to conserve it. We need to reduce the water intensity, duration, and frequency of water using tasks to help people reduce how much they consume.

Rewards and benefits

Being part of the venture studio provides unique access the water industry and Microsoft experts and customers. And of course you will become part of the Impact X family! The studio provides the benefits and tools to help start-ups accelerate at pace.

• Seed investment up to £250,000
• Up to $150k cloud credits, including OpenAI!
• Free working space in London
• Unparalleled access to industry experts and future customers
• Access our studio resource experts in sales, technology, finance, legal, recruitment etc.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator+ access