[Business Scene] Smart Water knows where the pipe will burst and saves water utilities millions of cubic meters of water and kuna

The innovative micro company Smart Water, which after less than four years of existence and market operations has so much work that it can choose with whom it wants to do business and is in a position to refuse offered jobs, caught our attention while researching ‘who is who’ in Innovative Zadar, which is the name of the supporting institution and business building of the entrepreneurial incubator in the Zadar neighborhood of Novi Bokanjac.

Currently, Smart Water has four employees, finished the business year 2021 with 9.8 million kuna in revenue, and plans to grow another twenty percent this year. They have found their niche under the market sun in losses in water supply systems, specializing in products and services that contribute to the preservation of drinking water reserves. What this actually means and what their business model looks like was explained to us in the meeting room of the Zadar incubator Marko Božić, the owner and director of the company whose time is coming.

– Our clients are municipal water supply companies and private companies that work on water supply projects with cities as contractors. We do monitoring, loss supervision, loss detection through special devices, we also work on burst prevention, through special hydraulic valves, pressure reduction, system optimization, and rehabilitation. We advise and educate design houses, water supply companies, and contractors on water supply projects. We also provide commissioning services, maintenance, and emergency maintenance of regulation valves of various brands, represent renowned manufacturers of water supply equipment, and are engaged in the production of fittings for water supply and drainage needs – the owner and director of the Zadar micro company guides us into the market niche.

To gain insight into the extent of the company’s innovation, Božić states that, for example, all necessary data measured through special measuring devices are uploaded to the cloud and that through machine learning it is possible to obtain data indicating that a burst is possible at, say, the twenty-eighth meter from that point. Such data is extremely useful for municipal companies and can save them both water and money, for example, for the Pula water supply company with which they work the most, which achieves a loss of about 15 percent in the water supply system, one of the better results in Croatia, where losses in water supply are on average above 50 percent.

Smart Water has more than enough work beyond its current capacities. In the segment of advanced loss detection in water supply systems and in the segment of production of fittings for water supply and drainage, there are several competitors in Croatia, but there is enough work for everyone.

– We grow every year and we will continue to grow, it’s just a question of how much we want it and how much growth is possible. We will see. It has been shown that production is profitable. We could produce some other parts that are needed. We are not currently thinking about export because there is too much work in Croatia for our current capacities, but in the foreseeable future, we will certainly move towards export. Production currently accounts for about 30 percent of total business revenue, it can also equalize with the other segment, we will see – Božić is cautious with growth forecasts and presenting plans.

At the end, we asked the owner and director of the promising company whether there had been offers for acquisition and whether Smart Water is even for sale, to which he replied that such offers had been made at the very beginning and that finding a strategic partner and selling shares to investors who would invest in development is a legitimate and desirable business model and that he would certainly think carefully about real offers.