Faclon provides solutions to remove inefficiencies in water management

The start-up has raised funds from Sameer Sainani of LetsVenture and others

With India being one of the 11 countries facing the threat of running out of water, according to a recent report by the US-based World Resources Institute, finding a sustainable solution for optimum utilisation of the essential natural resource has become all the more important. Working in this direction, Faclon, a start-up founded in 2016 by four IIT Bombay graduates Rishi Sharma, Utkarsh Narain, Archit Naraniwal and Ankit Parashar, provides solutions to remove inefficiencies in water management.

The idea behind the start-up came from a semester project in 2015 when a group of IIT Bombay students, including two of the founders, was studying mismanagement in the demand and supply of water in rural areas of Maharashtra. “Things were so chaotic then that we couldn't even map the supply and demand of water in Parbhani district during our visit as part of the study,” said Faclon co-founder Rishi Sharma. 

“Almost all the set-ups are currently managed manually with no data to understand the demand and supply bottlenecks. They take most of the decision on the basis of their gut feeling,” Sharma said.

The start-up, which has raised funds from Sameer Sainani of LetsVenture and others, provides services in three stages — data acquisition to get a real-time 360-degree view of an area, analysis of the data and alerting people regarding the water situation there, and then working on the problem by automation, for which it has developed a suite of hardware and software integration solutions.

As part of its few key assignments, Faclon helped Nashik Engineering Cluster to optimise its water utilisation with minimal wastage. According to Sharma, companies dependent on water, such as construction firms, can use their products and services to save water and also generate more revenue.

The start-up is also looking at tie-ups with governments and civic bodies in water management and conservation projects. It is currently working with the Firozabad Municipal Corporation for automating the water distribution infrastructure. The central government in the 2018-19 Budget has pledged ~950 million towards the National Water Mission to prepare a strategy regarding water conservation practices.

The firm has also conducted water management studies in Mumbai and Karad in Maharashtra and Bettiah in Bihar. It is planning to utilise its funds in covering Maharashtra and Gujarat, which grapple with drought-like situations every summer, and eventually move up north to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Faclon’s dozen-plus partners include original equipment manufacturers, contractors, and consultants, from whom the start-up takes one-time set-up cost, and later a recurring and annual maintenance cost.