CHENNAI: A year back, two aspiring engineers-turned-entrepreneurs Arun Subramanian and Roshan Karthik came up with an alternative to reduce water consumption and use it intelligently. Through their start-up Earth Fokus, they had introduced a product called QuaMist. The nozzle-like structure converted the flow of water into mist and thereby reduced wastage. Following an article featured in The New Indian Express, reputed corporate firm Cognizant had approached them. Eventually, the nozzle garnered attention.
“The firm was looking for measures to save water at that time and decided to give our products a shot. Earlier, we had designed QuaMist that reduced water consumption by 95 per cent. But they requested a smaller model that would fit into the tap easily and not protrude outside. That’s when we introduced EcoMist for mass production in bigger firms. This does not have an external cap. They tried the product in one phase of the building and managed to save several kilo litres of water,” said Arun Subramanian, the founder.
The innovators tell us that old aerators can be replaced with this tiny prism-shaped nozzle. On the whole, there are three parts — a washer with filter, nozzle and a cap. It can be fixed by anyone and turned clockwise for mist mode and anti-clockwise for flow mode. “The whole concept revolves around atomisation where water gets converted into sprinkles or droplets. When it comes with a certain force, water becomes mist. On an average, an individual wastes 150 litres of water but with mist, it is believed we can save 95 per cent of water. Our mentor-investor Najeeba Zabeer was a great support. She motivated us to start this as a project and it took us about six to eight months to come up with a satisfying prototype. We had done close to 20 models,” said Arun.
What started out as a team with four members has expanded to 13 members involved in various stages of production. The brand is slowly scaling up its production. Their sales has been spiking in the last three months as the city has been grappling with a water crisis. “People buy one or two QuaMist for their house. Apartment associations have also approached us with bulk orders. EcoMist is suggested for bigger firms and corporate firms,” said Arun.
The team has sold around 2,500 Qua Mist and 9,000 EcoMist in the past few months. Around seven corporate firms, real estate agents, IT parks and malls have approached them for the solution. “Our only challenge is to keep up with the demand. Once the order is placed, it takes 10-15 days to get them delivered. We’re working two more variants that will be launched soon,” said Arun.
QuaMist is priced at `660 and EcoMist at `550.For details, check: earthfokus.com