WebSummit Isn't Our Birthday - But It Should Be!
Today marks the start of WebSummit 2025, an event that feels like the perfect moment to pause, reflect, and celebrate our journey and why this conference was so pivotal for us back in 2017.
The Beginning
Like all great ventures, WATR began as a seed of an idea, powered by creativity, optimism, and enthusiasm.
Our CEO, Glyn, a passionate fisherman and environmentalist, identified a crucial gap in the market: the need for real-time monitoring of dissolved oxygen in fisheries and, more broadly, the opportunity for global real-time water quality and environmental monitoring.
Our WebSummit Story
In 2017, working alongside a team of talented, award-winning creative technologists, we developed our first proof of concept for WATR, an IoT-enabled smart water quality monitor that could send data from anywhere in the world.
That same year, we pitched WATR at WebSummit. Out of 20,000 entries and multiple rounds of competition, WATR was selected as one of three global finalists, a defining moment that helped launch our journey.
Our Journey Since 2017
- 2017 – WebSummit finalist and pre-seed investment secured
- 2019 – First commercial partnership and innovation trial with Anglian Water
- 2019 – First deployments in fisheries and for Anglian Water
- 2020 – Covid-19 impact, followed by Angel Seed Investment
- 2021 – WATR approved from innovation trial to Business As Usual (BAU) at Anglian Water
- 2021 – Highly Commended for Best Product Design at the Design Week Awards
- 2021 – Fast Company Awards Finalist, World Changing Ideas (On the Rise and EMEA)
- 2021 – Crowdfund investment round
- 2022 – First European deployment and launch of our Bankside unit
- 2023 – First deployments in Saudi Arabia and Australia
- 2025 – First deployment in the USA
- 2025 – Now working with 90% of UK water utilities
- 2025 – Private capital investment round
Recent Recognition
Just last month, we were thrilled to win the Innovative Sensor Technology Implementation Award and receive Highly Commended for Best Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring Project at the Environmental Monitoring Awards 2025, for our work with the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere.
This recognition, against some of the world’s most established environmental monitoring companies, means the world to us.
Looking Back and Ahead
Sometimes it’s important to pause and list our progress. It’s easy to get caught in the daily grind, but reflection reminds us how far we’ve come.
Our mission has always been simple yet powerful:
To improve water quality and the environment globally.
Developing an idea into a living, industrial-scale IoT product, one that operates in the harshest water conditions and transmits data from anywhere in the world has been incredibly challenging. But every milestone proves we’re moving in the right direction.
Thank You
A heartfelt thank you to WebSummit for being the catalyst that ignited our journey back in 2017.
- To Anglian Water, for believing in our potential from the very beginning.
- To our investors and clients, for your trust and support.
- And to our amazing team, whose hard work and dedication have made everything possible.
Here’s to continued innovation and to the next chapter of improving water quality around the world.
Get in touch
WATR has been designed to improve water quality around the world by providing an easy, accurate and a reliable way of monitoring water conditions, if you have any enquiries or questions please get in touch. Send us your specific requirements and we will get back to you as soon as possible.