Israel Cleantech buys 11% of AqWise

"Globes" reports that Israel Cleantech Ventures has acquired an 11% stake in sewage treatment solutions developer AqWise - Wise Water Technologies Ltd. from its founders, Ronen Shechter and Eytan Levy, in a secondary transaction in a deal that valued the company at $10 million.

AqWise CEO Elad Frenkel said, "This investment means that three institutional investors now stand behind the company: AHMSA, Elron, and Israel Cleantech." Mexican mining conglomerate Altos Hornos de Mexico SA de CV, owns 55% of AqWise, Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. owns 34%, and Israel Cleantech now owns 11%.

Globes says that this will not be Israel Cleantech's final investment in AqWise, which is in the late stages of an internal financial financing round amounting to a few million dollars from its current investors. The company is also close to signing contracts worth several million dollars with customers in Israel, Europe, the US, and Latin America.

"Globes": Do you plan to raise capital from external sources?

Frenkel: "Elron is a strategic investor, not merely a financial one. Israel Cleantech and AHMSA are also both strategic investors. That's why we don’t need outside money right now. They want to stand behind the company and make it succeed."

AqWise was founded in 2000. It specializes in the upgrading of wastewater treatment plants through the Attached Growth Airlift Reactor (AGAR) process, a method for biologically increasing water treatment capacity using biofilm carriers. The company posted a fourth quarter loss after posting profits in the preceding quarters, but the company has installed dozens of commercial units around the world, and its global target market is estimated at more than a $1 billion a year, and it is growing.

In 2007, AqWise was named in "The Cleantech Revolution" as one of the top 10 companies to watch in the field of water filtration

Ronen Shechter and Eytan Levy recently founded a new microbial fuel cell company, EMEFCY Bioenergy Systems, which will focus on the production of electricity and fuel from heavy duty industrial waste. Levy is also a venture partner at Israel Cleantech Ventures.

Busy week for water technologies

More than 2000 visitors and 100 delegations from 80 countries worldwide attended the WATEC conference last week in Tel Aviv to survey the latest developments in water and environmental technologies.

Israel is a global leader in the water sector, and a number of new deals and agreements were announced at the conference. Below is a summary.

• Government launches new water R&D program. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor today launched Israel NEWTech - Novel Efficient Water Technologies, the government program to promote Israeli water technologies. The program aims to double water technology exports to $2 billion by 2010.
  

• Mekorot nearing strategic cooperation with GE. Water industry sources inform ''Globes'' that Mekorot National Water Company is in advanced negotiations for a strategic cooperation agreement with General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) for the construction of the $450 million 100-million cubic meter desalination plant at Ashdod.

• Arison unit CEO sees water potential in purified wells. “Israel has 50 million cubic meters of untapped polluted water in the coastal plain alone, which can be treated, thereby saving local authorities a great deal of money, as well as helping raise money for the construction of desalination plants,” says Blue-Green CEO Amir Levi. Blue-Green is a division of the Arison Business Group.
  

• Aquarius CEO urges water start-ups to float shares. “The water industry doesn’t need better technology for the production of drinking water. Today’s technologies are excellent. The challenge is to improve the energy consumption needed to produce water,” says Aquarius Technologies Inc. president and CEO Thomas M. Pokorsky.

• U.S. investor acquires 17% of water management solutions company Arad. US Jewish businessman Bill Davidson is expanding his holdings in Israel and is reportedly acquiring 17% of water measurement and management solutions company Arad Ltd. at a value of $120 million.

• Israel-China 'water-trade' to rise significantly. Israel expects "to significantly increase" its water technology exports to China over the next few years following a successful round of meetings between National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Chinese water-technology leaders attending WATEC Israel 2007.

• Israel and Mexico in water treatment deal. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and Mexican National Water Commissioner Jose Luis Luege Tamargo have signed a water cooperation agreement between Israel and Mexico, NEWTech - Novel Efficient Water Technologies director Oded Distel told “Globes”.