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“Lion’s Den”Mineral water to go – Aarau startup rejects CHF 800,000 offer
Two ETH graduates received an investment from four “lions” for their startup bottleplus, with whose drinking bottle you can produce sparkling water anywhere.
After the show, however, the two founders decided on another investor. There would have been another possibility that would have enabled them to implement their project more quickly.
The Lion’s Den Switzerland
Their product: A modular drinking bottle with which you can produce up to five liters of mineral water on the go.
bottleplus
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The startup bottleplus develops water bottles that can be used to produce mineral water on the go.
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For this idea, they received an investment of 800,000 francs from the program “Die Höhle der Löwen Schweiz”.
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But they refused this.
Being able to produce mineral water from any drinking water at the push of a button on the go: That’s what the startup bottleplus of Christian Käser and Linus Lingg from Aarau promises. The ETH graduates in environmental engineering and robotics have developed a modular drinking bottle, whereby the lower and removable part of the bottle is filled with CO2 gas at a charging station at home. If the so-called carboniser is full, it is possible to produce more than five liters of mineral water with the bottle.
The reusable bottle is made in Switzerland and Germany and does not contain single-use plastic. “In Switzerland alone, a chain of PET bottles that goes more than once around the world is not recycled every year,” says Käser. Mineral water bottles made up a significant part of this amount. In order to solve this problem, he and Lingg have been developing bottleplus since September 2020 and even quit their jobs to do so.
Further modules planned
“At the moment you always have to buy a PET bottle for sparkling water on the go,” says Käser. This is environmentally suboptimal, not a convenient solution and very expensive in the long run. After purchasing the bottleplus system, a liter of bottled mineral water only costs around 15 centimes. “This makes it possible to turn high-quality Swiss tap water into mineral water anytime, anywhere, while minimizing plastic consumption.”
The first generation of the drinking bottle is expected to come onto the market in March 2023. The system, including a bottle, can already be pre-ordered on the website for a good 180 francs. “Further modules are planned for the future, which can be used, for example, to purify water or produce flavored water.”
Company has found new investor
The idea hit the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen Schweiz”, in which young entrepreneurs present their business ideas: “This product should have been around for a long time,” said investor Tobias Reichmut, co-founder of Crypto Finance AG . Three other investors – Roland Brack from the online trading platform Brack.ch, tech entrepreneur Bettina Hein and investment company owner Jürg Schwarzenbach – were enthusiastic about the idea and wanted to acquire 3.5 percent of the company for CHF 200,000 each.
After the show, Käser and Lingg decided against the CHF 800,000 participation. “Another option opened up, which, after very fruitful talks, promised us a little more,” says Käser.
Most of the money goes into the setup for mass production of the bottle itself. They now want to use the rest of the money to market the product and expand the team. “This round of financing was an important step in realizing our idea,” says Käser. The biggest hurdle for a startup like bottleplus that manufactures a hardware product is money. “The costs are high right from the start because you have to make prototypes and make the product suitable for mass production.”