Propelair

Idea

*source: unaudited management accounts. Includes £173k of sales to customers funded by Horizon 2020

**Nobel Sustainability Fund, including its subsidiaries, managed by Earth Capital

Introduction

Propelair has developed and patented what we believe is the world’s lowest water-flush toilet system helping commercial customers reduce costs, their impact on the environment and improve hygiene.

Toilets waste vast amounts of clean water. This is not only costly but with 1 in 9 people worldwide lacking access to safe water and an increasing number of regions being chronically affected by drought, this is an urgent social problem.

Propelair’s innovative solution saves water through using air to propel just 1.5 litres of water per flush, into existing drains, compared to 6-9 litres per flush for conventional toilets. As well as enabling a superior flush and massive water savings, it saves money, reduces water processing (thereby saving carbon), is quick to refill and is more hygienic than a conventional toilet, reducing aerosolised germs, including COVID-19, by 95%.

The system is designed for commercial use, so maintenance is also significantly reduced.

Substantial accomplishments to date

The technology behind Propelair has evolved over 20 years to produce what we believe is the lowest water flush toilet in the world and a huge improvement in hygiene vs. ordinary toilets.

Protecting this technology are 3 patents, 3 registered designs and a wealth of accumulated knowledge. Here’s how our toilets work:

Propelair has installed nearly 4,000 units in the UK and South Africa. Customers include service stations, shopping centres, universities, restaurants, banks and many more.

In the last year the new Management Team have grown our sales pipeline from 3,000 units to nearly 40,000 units.

We plan to be profitable within 18 months.

Most of our customers have a payback period of less than 3 years with some high flush sites experiencing a payback of less than 1 year.

Our customers are currently saving close to a 1bn litres of water per year (enough to fill 25 oil tankers).

They are also saving, based on our calculations, close to 1,000,000 Kgs of CO2 per year (the equivalent of 250,000 car trips).

Current investors include Investec, The Nobel Sustainability Fund and Associated Subsidiaries (managed by Earth Capital), and Universal Partners.

Propelair was awarded the prestigious Horizon 2020 grant in 2017 to develop new innovations.

Propelair has also featured in:

Monetisation strategy

Propelair's core business is the innovation and design of low water flush toilets.

We use a range of trusted suppliers in Thailand, China and the UK and have a global network of fully committed distribution partners who install and maintain the toilets on our behalf. This allows us to scale rapidly with little growth in overheads.

We support our partners using our sales and marketing teams, whilst our in-house technical team ensure our partners are up to date with the latest innovations and best practices.

Currently our primary revenue source is the sale and installation of toilets, supplemented by maintenance and spares income.

However, our plan is to launch a smart connected toilet in the next 12 months allowing us to roll-out a "Savings-as-a-Service" model where customers pay a monthly fee, instead of the usual up front cost of the toilet, and receive year round maintenance, support and real time analytics. This will allow us to capture longer term, contracted revenues.

Use of proceeds

As we plan to scale rapidly we will require working capital and stock acquisition funds to enable growth.

Over the next two years we plan to grow our footprint in the UK and South Africa and launch into other water-stressed markets in the Middles East, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Most excitingly are our plans for innovation and product development, all of which we are already working on. Plans include the rollout of:

- Product and installation cost reductions.

- Product range growth - allowing us to cater to a larger range of customers needs.

- Premium accessories (e.g., auto flush, auto close/open, self cleaning etc.).

- Block detection and prevention - reducing downtimes and identifying problem areas.

- And the introduction of a smart connected toilet allowing us to roll-out a "Savings-as-a-Service" model. In the face of COVID-19 we have accelerated rollout of a low-capex solution with planned trials in the coming months.