THE INNOVATORS
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An APANA motherboard.
Apana’s Intelligent Water Management Platform
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or companies with numerous buildings and installations spread out over a wide geographical area, water use malfunctions can be hard to pinpoint. When a specific device or installation is broken, leaking, or wasting water, the company may have only a general sense that something is going wrong. That is where APANA comes in. Its Internet of things (IoT) hardware and intelligent water management software uses big data and machine learning to identify anomalous water use patterns and provide specific suggestions about what may be going wrong. Information like this helps a building, a company, or an entire city to quickly respond to problems, increase efficiency, and manage its water use. In this interview, Matt Rose, the chief executive officer (CEO) of APANA, speaks with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about how APANA’s technology works and how it is revolutionizing water management.
plants for buildings that didn’t have access to municipal sewer systems, mainly retail buildings like Walmart or Costco stores in remote places. Ten years ago, Frank asked me to help him automate, monitor, and provide remote control capabilities for these sequencing batch reactor wastewater plants. After we sensorized and automated the plants, we noticed that there was generally a greater volume of effluent going into the wastewater plants than the designers had predicted. We then had to tell the owners that they could either build a bigger plant or we would need to come up with a system to manage their water use. Our customers asked us to develop water management tools, and that’s how APANA was born. We started with two pilots in Mexico City, which succeeded in reducing water consumption by over 30 percent. We have continued to expand our products and services over the last 4 years.
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
Joshua Dill: Tell us about APANA today.
30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
Matt Rose: Today, we consider ourselves a leader in the emerging market of water management platforms in the commercial and industrial space. Many leading customers are focusing on utility efficiency, digitization, and conservation efforts to increase company value and stay ahead of competition. We provide an end-to-end solution in water to meet bottom line and sustainability goals. We have 16 employees today and intend to expand rapidly. We just closed a series B funding round of $11 million; our lead strategic investor is Kurita Water
PHOTO COURTESY OF APANA.
Matt Rose: I am the CEO of APANA, a company that provides intelligent water management platforms for commercial, industrial, and smart city use. I have been involved in the past with new product development for hardware and software in the healthcare and utility industries, and I’ve applied those skills to lead the development of the systems that we have today. APANA’s roots go back to work our founder, Frank Burns, did 25 years ago. He designed and built wastewater treatment
