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Wauwatosa water sensor technology startup NanoAffix is a product of Milwaukee through and through.
Founded by former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee engineering professor Junhong Chen, the company was launched with guidance from the UWM Research Foundation. Its early strategic partners, seed investors and ad-hoc advisers are well-known local water industry manufacturers A.O. Smith Corp., Badger Meter Inc. and Baker Manufacturing Co. LLC.
NanoAffix has also received support from The Water Council, which has its headquarters in Milwaukee, and this year was selected for the organization's BREW 2.0 accelerator program that's focused on helping water startups from around the world bring their technology to market.
"Milwaukee does a wonderful job in creating this innovation ecosystem around water," Chen said. "I really attribute that to The Water Council's leadership, as well as the regional universities."
The startup launched its first product — a handheld device that can detect lead in water and provide fast results via a mobile app — in April and has started accepting its first orders. It works with contract manufacturers to produce the sensors and is currently using off-the-shelf meter devices. It developed the app in-house, said NanoAffix chief science officer James Hill.
Longer term, NanoAffix could potentially engineer continuous sensor chips that could monitor water for contaminants constantly to enable intelligent systems, Chen said. Its sensors could also collect water quality data that could be leveraged for machine learning and artificial intelligence, he said.
"That's going to be even more powerful because now we can integrate these sensors into our faucets, into our filters, into our water meters to continuously monitor the water quality," Chen said. "If there's a contaminant exceeding this threshold, we could provide early warning to our users."
With its initial product, NanoAffix is targeting customers including water utility companies, water service providers, schools, day care centers, home inspectors and multi-unit housing facilities. Eventually, the startup hopes to reduce the cost of its technology enough to make it accessible for individual consumers, Chen said.
"We are democratizing the water testing," Chen said. "If we make it low-cost enough, we're hoping everyone will be in a position to test out their quality (and) trust their results."
NanoAffix is in the process of raising $3 million to $5 million in Series A equity financing, Chen said. The company plans to launch a new product every year for the next several years, he said. Each product will be based on the same underlying technology but will enable customers to detect different water contaminants.
Company name: NanoAffix Science LLC
Headquarters: Wauwatosa
Year founded: 2009
CEO: Junhong Chen
No. of employees: 6 full-time employees plus some part-time employees, including Chen
Website: nanoaffix.com
The technology/product: NanoAffix's technology is an electronic sensing platform that detects various contaminants in water or air. Its first product is a portable device that can quickly detect lead in tap water via a hand-held sensor that connects to a mobile app to deliver results in minutes.
How it makes money: NanoAffix's plan is to drive revenue and profit through sales of its single-use sensor chips. For its first product, it's also selling reusable water sensing devices but that component is not designed to be profit-generating, Chen said. The chips are currently priced around $10 to $15 apiece but the company aims to eventually lower the price, he added.
Size of the market: Within five years, NanoAffix projects it will generate nearly $30 million in annual revenue, Chen said. NanoAffix's product will create a new market and potentially replace part of the existing market for water analysis laboratory services, he added.
Competition: Water test strips that are available through sources like Amazon.com, water testing laboratories, companies like Hawk Measurement Systems
Competitive advantage: NanoAffix said its product delivers fast, accurate results and is more affordable than competitors' devices. Additionally, NanoAffix's device is portable and easy to use, the company said.
Key leaders: CEO and founder Junhong Chen, who is also currently a molecular engineering professor at the University of Chicago; chief science officer James Hill
Investors: A.O. Smith Corp., Badger Meter Inc., Baker Manufacturing Co. LLC
Capital raised: $450,000 from seed investors plus several rounds of grant funding through federal and state programs like the Small Business Innovation Research program, for a total of around $3 million, Chen said.
Ideal exit: All options are on the table, Chen said. Given the startup's involvement with water industry corporations, being acquired by a larger company could be realistic, he said.
