Air-to-Water Technology Maker ‘Air Water Company’ To Go Public Through SPAC
Today, Air Water Ventures (formerly known as Eshara Water) and SPAC Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. II publicly listed announced a business combination agreement, resulting in a new company called Air Water Company. The merger will establish the first publicly traded air-to-water technology play when the combined company begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange, expected in the first half of 2024.
Air Water Venture’s technology uses an air flow system that extracts water from the environment using its space generators. According to Air Water CEO Alex Guy, the technology makes sense in places like the Middle East that don’t have groundwater or surface water.
Guy first encountered air-to-water technology while working in private equity in the Middle East. In 2018, he was introduced to a UK company with air-to-water technology that quickly disappeared. Guy saw interest in this technology in the UAE and began exploring the creation of an air-to-water company.
“No one had heard of it,” Guy told The Spoon. “It almost sounds too good to be true. You look at the air-to-water unit, you look back to see where the hose is connected, because no one believes it produces water by dehumidifying the air.”
After founding the company in 2019, the first project involved developing a 1,000-liter per day wind generator in collaboration with Raytheon. The founding team initially believed that this technology would primarily benefit military and disaster relief efforts.
“The basic theory behind this program was an effort to reduce the cost of transporting plastic bottled water to front-line military personnel.”
However, Guy and his co-founders quickly realized the potential of the consumer and commercial product portfolio.
“Hotels and schools were under pressure to get rid of plastic,” said Guy. “The major companies in the UAE have all made commitments to eliminate plastic bottles by 2022-2023. So we saw an opportunity there to try to help with that plastic removal.”
Today, the company’s technology is being deployed in the Middle East, where the company recently completed a water treatment plant at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr hotel in Abu Dhabi. The Fairmont installation includes both a wind-to-water generator that can produce up to 4,000 gallons of drinking water per day and a bottling plant.
Guy expects that the IPO through SPAC and Athena will provide working capital to expand production of wind-to-water generators and expand the product line. The company develops generators for residences and hotels that can produce 2 or 5 liters per day. The 2-liter container, which Air Water is looking to bring to the US market next year, will retail for about $145. The 5-liter unit, which can fit into hotel rooms in places like the Middle East or the American Southwest, will produce water in the room and replace “all those plastic bottles sitting next to the Nespresso machine.”
The company plans to expand its commercial offerings, producing a range of products capable of producing 10, 20, 30 liters up to 50,000 liters. Guy envisions their solution as the perfect offering for large commercial installations looking to eliminate plastic, in part because of the company’s ability to create automated bottling plants.
Guy believes that while the initial appeal of their technology is to reduce plastic use, the growing water crisis in places like the US Southwest will be a further driving force in the long run.
“The sustainability-driven consumer will focus on plastic consumption, but ultimately, I think that focus will shift to the water source,” Guy said. “You know, where does the water really come from?”
Guy believes their product will work well in areas with enough moisture to generate water from the air, such as Florida or Arizona in the US. Conversely, states like Washington may not provide enough moisture during certain seasons like winter for the technology to work properly. Internationally, countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, with favorable environmental conditions and inadequate traditional water infrastructure, could benefit from its solution.
“I think that air-to-water technology is a cheaper solution (there), because it removes all that traditional water infrastructure that you usually build.”
The Air Water Company is not the only company that specializes in building air-to-water generators. Arizona-based Source Water, originally called Zero Mass Water, is developing air-to-water technology using solar panels that extract water from the air. The company has raised $150 million from the likes of Bill Gates and Black Rock. Israel-based WaterGen, which received funding from the Israeli government, has exported its technology to many countries without clean drinking water. Also at this year’s CES, Kara Water demonstrated its 10L home and office unit that can produce alkaline-rich water from the air.
According to the announcement, the newly formed company will be valued at approximately $300 million and will have up to $60 million in capital to support the company’s growth.
