TinyLoop won with its shower system that enables a person to shower for as long as they would like while still using less than 10 litres of water. By reducing the water wastage associated with showers, the system is a potential game-changer.
“TinyLoop is a closed-loop shower system that recycles (less than) 10 litres of water for a continuous, guilt-free shower experience. It allows you the opportunity to enjoy showering while staying well below the current Level 6B water restrictions allocation of 50 litres per person," says Thomas Bartleman, head designer for TinyLoop.
"It is also the first proactive step towards combatting the "new normal" of water scarcity and a growing population in the Western Cape and South Africa,” he explains. “The Startupbootcamp hackathon offered us the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from individuals with vastly different backgrounds and experiment with new ideas regarding the product. The mentorship from Startupbootcamp, their corporate partners, and the sponsors was just as valuable.”
“The prize money will mainly be used to improve the product capabilities, with some of it allocated to exploring better filtration and production capabilities. ThundaFund, one of the sponsors, will also provide their expertise in the crowdfunding space to help us connect with the Cape Town community and get the product to market,” states Bartleman.
“There is no doubt that collectively, people who have a passion to solve real issues, make a difference. This weekend’s hackathon was testimony to that. The participants came from a variety of backgrounds with different skills, but all had a desire to build real solutions,” comments Paul Nel, chief partnership officer and CFO of Startupbootcamp Cape Town. “It is vital that we as a community work together on solutions. By providing the environment to do so, we are assured of change. It was so beautiful to see the creative minds crafting the ideas into tangible opportunities.”
TapOff, one of the teams in attendance, created an online platform that aimed to inform, empower and gamify residential water use so residents use 50 litres or less water per person per day.
Golden Flow decided to demonstrate the ability to close the loop on unrecycled water. By recycling treated effluent, it is developing ways of making the use of grey water more easy and efficient. Another team also dabbled in recycling grey water with a residential filtration system.
Water Tickets looked at solutions that could be put in place should Day Zero become a reality. It offered a simple solution for reserving time slots at water collection spots, and an additional feature to enable neighbours, friends, or members of the community to collect water on behalf of people who are unable (including sick and elderly).
SBC is now embarking upon a global fast-track tour to source top-tier tech startup talent solving real African problems.
Any startup operating in the fintech, cybersecurity, insurtech, e-commerce, retailtech and related industries is encouraged to join in the fast-tracks.
Attending a FastTrack will also give a startup the significant advantage of being added to the SBC Cape Town watch list, which gives you a 20% higher chance of being selected for the final programme.
The final programme is a three-month accelerator kicking off in September. SBC chooses ten startups from hundreds of applications to join the programme and these ten will be exposed to global investors, corporate sponsors, thought leaders, and mentors from every industry.
Find out more about the Startupbootcamp and the fast-track tour.
