UCL-supported entrepreneur launches innovative water filter

A UCL alumnus has launched his second startup, providing fresh, filtered drinking water sustainably and cheaply.

Water2 was set up by alumnus Charles Robinson (UCL Philosophy) in 2020 to address the issue of improving access to fresh drinking water for people all over the world. Water2’s main product, the Pod, is an under-sink water filter that uses activated carbon and silver ionisation to filter tap water to up to 0.1 microns (where one micron is equal to a thousandth of a millimetre). Particles larger than this will not pass through into drinking water. The Pod therefore filters water over 1,000 times more finely than many typical household water jug cartridges.

As well as the filter itself, the company also sells water filtered through the Pod in recyclable aluminium cans. Charles worked with innovation partners in Italy to develop the Pod, and with Dr Luiza Campos (UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering) to test its efficiency at removing calcium carbonate, found in hard water, and microparticles such as microplastics.

A following MSc project compared the Pod with another commercial household water filter. Compared to commercial filter jugs that need a fresh cartridge every month or so, the Pod only requires one capsule a year.

This seemed strange; fundamentally, they both deliver water to the consumer, so why can Evian, FIJI and Voss be world leading consumer brands with amazing storytelling and there be nothing like that in the filter industry? 

"My initial conviction then is what remains our ethos today; to build a great brand in this space, you need to focus on the water. For us, that means selling the water; indeed, we’re the first company with a filter so good that we actually can and sell our water.”