Cerahelix announced this week that it has signed a contract with a Fortune 50 company that will see its nanofiltration technology used at a new manufacturing facility to treat 100,000 gallons of wastewater per day for reuse.
The Orono-based company, founded in 2011, has patented a process that uses DNA to essentially create DNA-sized holes in ceramic material to create a filter. These nanofiltration devices can remove impurities from water that are 100 times smaller than a virus, according to the company. While the filters have applications across many industries, from brewing to pharmaceutical production, the company’s main target is treating industrial wastewater for re-use, which CEO Susan MacKay has called the “fastest growing sector in water today.”
This multi-million-dollar contract is a milestone for the company, whose revenue to date has been a mix of sales of filters and services, in which the Cerahelix team works with prospective clients to determine if using the high-tech filters will solve their problems, according to MacKay.
This contract will see Cerahelix’s filters deployed at a manufacturing facility to treat plant wastewater at a rate of more than 100,000 gallons per day, according to the company. The water will be reused internally and externally, “saving water resources, eliminating discharge into the environment, and providing added value to the company.”
MacKay said she is not allowed to identify the customer, but that the critical message is that this is a large-scale commercial installation that will open doors for future business.
“This will resonate with industrial customers who will understand that this provides significant validation for our technology,” MacKay told Maine Startups Insider. “A filtration system at this size that provides a single stage solution for industrial wastewater re-use at 90% recovery is positioned to capture a significant share of a current and growing $2 billion U.S. market.”
MacKay said other major companies, as well as NASA, are evaluating the company’s technology and that the company’s current pipeline shows $20 million worth of business between now and 2021.
Proctor & Gamble a safe bet
While MacKay declined to identify Cerahelix’s new customer, there are some major clues as to its identity.
For one, Cerahelix identifies the company as “the world’s largest manufacturers of personal care products” and a member of the Fortune 50 list. That narrows the list of potential companies to two: Johnson & Johnson and Proctor & Gamble.
Another hint is that this contract is for the deployment of the technology at a single location, which MacKay had previously identified as a new “mega factory.” It just so happens, Proctor & Gamble is in the process of building a new 2.5 million-square-foot “mega factory” in West Virginia.
This remains speculation, and was not confirmed by MacKay, but it seems that Proctor & Gamble is a safe bet for the customer.
Cerahelix ramps up hiring after 2018 fundraising
Cerahelix currently employs 16 people, 14 of whom are located in Maine between its two facilities (its administrative offices and R&D facility are located in the UpStart Center for Entrepreneurship in Orono, while its manufacturing space is located at the Bangor Innovation Center). MacKay said the company will hire three or four more people this summer. That headcount is nearly double what it was this time last year.
Cerahelix closed its Series B last year, raising just over $2.4 million. The lead investor was Pure Terra Ventures, a Shanghai and European-based “water-focused” fund, with additional venture funding from Colorado-based Hydro Venture Partners and Lateral Capital, based in Florida, according to MacKay.
