New FML spinoff Openversum on the rise to improve global drinking water
Openversum provides access to clean drinking water for people living in poverty. For their sustainable clean drinking water solution, they received international attention and were praised by expert juries.
Today, two billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Openversum tackles this urgent issue by combining cutting-edge drinking water filter technology with microfranchising. They empower water entrepreneurs with the tools, materials, and business know-how to produce and distribute drinking water filters locally.
Thanks to the field studies during the Ph.D. thesis of Olivier Gröninger in Ecuador and Colombia, over 400 people now have access to clean water. To increase the impact, the research is translated into the social business Openversum. For their work, they were covered in the recent news articles from ETH Zurich (Link) and the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (external page Link), have received several awards from expert juries and benefited from international exposure (invited to a 3-week business accelerator in Boston at Hult Business School and pitched Openversum at Clinton Global Initiative in New York).