Tech in Africa
The Cape Town-based startup, I-Drop Water is a for-profit social impact South African water-purification startup. The water solutions provider aims to provide better access to clean drinking water and reduce the usage of single-use plastic bottles. I-Drop Water bagged the award for its innovation which aims at reducing single-use plastic across Africa at the Plastics Pact Reuse Innovation Challenge 2021.
I-Drop Water builds, designs, and installs drinking water purification and dispensing machines across grocery stores at no charge. The revenue from sales is shared with the store owners. Bluewater a Swedish global tech company has made a significant investment into I-Drop Water.
I-Drop Water now has a presence in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, one which Bluewater hopes intends to support further. Bluewater is the world leader in water purification solutions for home, commercial, and public drinking spaces while I-Drop specializes in designing, building, and safely selling water to customers.
I-Drop Water was founded by James and Kate Steers and it utilizes nanotechnology in its water purification efforts. A GSM-enabled platform helps grocery store owners purify and retail clean drinking water. Their innovative approach that promotes the use of re-fill bottles saw them win the CNBC-Forbes Africa 2017 All Africa Business Leader Award – Innovator of the Year.
