UBC technology that improves the accessibility of safe drinking water is now a thriving startup, thanks to an experienced executive taking a chance on a new venture and the multi-faceted support UBC offers entrepreneurial faculty, students, staff and alumni.
The venture now known as Acuva—a portable water purification system that uses UV-LED technology to disinfect water— got its start when Manoj Singh, an experienced executive and MBA graduate from the UBC Sauder School of Business, approached entrepreneurship@UBC (e@UBC) looking for a promising UBC technology to commercialize. The University-Industry Liaison Office (UILO) worked with e@UBC to connect Manoj with Fariborz Taghipour, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at UBC, who had developed a water purification technology. Manoj found the technology compelling and leveraged financial support from the e@UBC seed fund to create Acuva as a spin-off company with a license to the technology.
“The potential of UV-LED technology is limitless and both Fariborz and I wanted to exploit this potential to change many lives by enabling safe drinking water,“ said Singh.
Acuva is now one of several ventures benefitting from HATCH, an e@UBC incubator space that helps technology startups launch commercial products.
“At UBC we are actively promoting innovation in many different forms by fostering partnerships and supporting the activities of our faculty, students, staff and alumni,” said Helen Burt, acting vice-president, research at UBC. “Acuva is a great example of a new venture that has benefited from many university programs and services. As a result, they have been able to take an exciting research discovery from the lab and translate it into socioeconomic benefits for our province and beyond.”
Media: For interviews with Manoj Singh and Helen Burt contact Leslie Dickson, leslie.dickson@ubc.ca
Acuva is one of more than 25 UBC-based ventures and research teams exhibiting at the #BCTECH Summit next week. For a full list of exhibitors, visit: https://research.ubc.ca/bctechsummit#exhibitors
In his role as Premier Christy Clark’s Chief Advisor to the British Columbia Innovation Network, UBC President Santa Ono will bring industry, post-secondary institutions, government and other partners together in a session at the #BCTECH Summit. President Ono will lead a discussion on how we can build clusters of expertise that combine complementary strengths in a variety of fields, and partnerships between post-secondary institutions, governments and industry, to tackle difficult societal problems facing B.C. and communities around the world.
UBC experts are participating in a number of other sessions at the summit on topics ranging from the potential applications of quantum research, and technology and innovations in clean natural gas, to the future of health care, and technology and the social fabric of our food systems. For a full list of UBC participants in the #BCTECH Summit visit: https://research.ubc.ca/bctechsummit#presenters