October 17, 2011
TaKaDu Wins Cleantech Award
By Ben Rooney TaKaDu, the Yehud based water infrastructure monitoring company that we visited on the recent TechTour visit to Israel has won a prestigious cleantech award.
The organization won the “Company of the Year—Europe & Israel” in the 2011 Global Cleantech 100 awards.
The “Company of the Year” title is awarded to the highest ranked company in the list, within a region. The Global Cleantech 100 program is produced by Cleantech Group, a California research firm focussing on cleantech innovation in collaboration with the U.K.’s Guardian News and Media.
The announcement follows the company winning a runner up’s award in The Wall Street Journal’s Innovation Awards in the Environment category.
TaKaDu tackles the problem of automating the detection of leaking pipes and burst mains. Although many utility companies have invested in telemetry and display technologies that allow them to see some of what is going on in their water networks, what other current systems cannot do is interpret that data automatically; it requires trained engineers to analyze the reports.
“We are very happy. We are happier with the business than we are with the awards. Give me one customer for one very two awards …” joked Guy Horowitz, VP Marketing.
“We made [Cleantech's] list last year, but this time we won. The Cleantech group told us that what they like is innovation in both technology and business models.
“It’s not enough to do just one. The water industry is very slow to change. But if you make innovations that are easy for them to swallow, then they will use them.
“We made it SaaS and cloud-based so there is no capital investment on the water companies’ part. You let them try for three months and the companies will embrace it.”
“The other thing we are innovating is in the delivery method. SaaS is not just a business model, it is a way of delivering a solution. Every individual in a utility has access to alerts, to over-views and dashboards means that the entire organization is connected. That is a big change.”
Mr. Horowitz said that the company would be announcing their first U.S. customer shortly. “The U.S. lags behind Europe both in terms of the number of meters and infrastructure, but it is learning from the the European experience.”
He also said they would be announcing a “very large international group launching in a significant way” with the company within the next six months.
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