An Indianapolis-based water quality testing startup has won the Rise of the Rest pitch competition. A panel of judges selected 120WaterAudit, which provides subscription-based water-testing services for residents, schools and utilities, to win the $100,000 prize. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Megan Glover says the win puts the young company on the map and is “validation that what we’re doing matters and we need to continue to do it.”
Glover launched 120WaterAudit in 2016 along with former ExactTarget co-founder Chris Baggott. The company provides customers with water testing kits that include a water collection bottle designed to be filled and sent back for testing. Results are typically typically given to the customer within two weeks.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Glover says water quality is a trillion dollar problem throughout the United States. She says she believes having an idea that works to improve public health helped to make her company stand out from the nine other companies involved in the competition.
“Water is one of the most, if not the most, vital thing to our well-being and our everyday life and the systems and processes that (are in use) today are broken,” said Glover. “So we’re helping improve those processes and honestly at the end of the day, as cliche as it sounds, it makes the world a better place.”
Glover says, in addition to her company, the Rise of the Rest competition puts the Indianapolis tech scene on the map.
“I’ve been in the tech community for over a decade and, honestly, I’ve never had a reason to leave,” she said. “We are just so fortunate in Indianapolis to have such a thriving technology community across such diverse verticals. We saw a portable electric company pitched today, an insurance company, a political company, marketing tech, and I just think this competition validates what we’ve already known.”
The $100,000 investment comes from AOL co-founder Steve Case and his Washington D.C.-based venture capital firm, Revolution LLC. In an interview with Inside INdiana Business earlier in the day Thursday, Case said the competition is about telling the story of the lesser-known entrepreneurial hotspots.