VAPAR Launches UK operations to be closer to growing customer base

This month, we are proud to announce the opening of our offices in the UK where CEO, Amanda Siqueira, will now be based. VAPAR has always been keen to get closer to the water and sewer market in the UK since the company first came over to the UK as part of United Utilities’s Innovation Lab 2, back in 2019.

Building on its development and successes in Australia and New Zealand in 2020, and with the support of United Utilities and other UK based customers, VAPAR has been able to grow in size and has been able to co-develop their software to meet specific UK market needs. This move also means that VAPAR will not only be able to serve customers in more countries, but also opens up direct customer support in many more timezones. The VAPAR team in Australia continues to grow to enable the delivery, support and technical development of the solutions to the global market.

VAPAR’s CEO, Amanda Siqueira, says “Whilst it is a challenge to carry out the expansion internationally in the middle of COVID, all the signs were telling us that we needed to be here, close to our valued customers. What COVID has taught us is that whilst a lot can be achieved remotely, especially in the world of software and cloud delivery, the relationships and impact of in-person collaboration is key to innovation and getting the details right”. To support the company’s growth, the technical team has doubled in size, lead by CTO, Michelle Aguilar, who was also recently a finalist for the Women in AI 2021 awards.

VAPAR is currently undertaking a number of trials and implementation projects in the UK that will be announced shortly. We are also always looking for collaborative partnerships that can add value to our UK water utility customers.

If you would like to learn more, get in touch with Amanda directly via LinkedIn or our Contact us page.

Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day at VAPAR

To celebrate International Women in Engineering day, co-founders Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar have been invited to make an appearance on Ausbiz TV’s Startup Daily Show and share their experiences and views on how women in engineering can shape the world.

We’re a fully female-founded company, both myself and my business partner Amanda are also engineers which is not very common! We develop tools for the water industry, specifically around the inspection process for underground stormwater and sewer pipes. We use Al and other toots to automate the review of pipe inspection footage and are revolutionizing the way that water utilities and contractors manage their pipe inspection data.

We were the market founding technology in this space 4 years ago, and continue to have a lead on our competitors today. We have active projects in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and are also running other trials and pilots in the US and Europe. My co-founder Amanda moved to the UK to help expand our reach and we have recently hired our first UK employee. We are the first & only company in our direct competitors to have spread our team over country boundaries in this manner.

We are also breaking down traditional sales models in the water industry, delivering our products as Saas which would previously have been a typical consulting service. We’re having to educate our customers on Al and change their

perspectives on the adoption of innovative technology. This has been an uphill battle but has recently paid off once our Saas subscription model was launched 6 months ago with many of our customers signing up for yearly contracts.

Our mission is to revolutionize the USS88Bn global pipe repair market to create a world where Infrastructure self-manages from installation to overhaul, creating a safer environment for us all.

Check out what they had to say here and how they’ve overcome gender diversity within the engineering industry.

Infiltration/Exfiltration of drainage pipes cause major street damage

A large sinkhole has recently appeared on a street in the middle of Melbourne’s CBD.

“It [was] confirmed the issue was caused by a crack in a barrel drain running along the street.”

Ordinarily, “a crack” in a pipe by itself is not enough to cause a sinkhole.

But degradation over time can lead to compounding of pipe defects such as tree roots growing through the cracks, corrosion of any pipe reinforcement, and infiltration/exfiltration (water getting in/out of the pipe).

The biggest culprit here is likely infiltration/exfiltration.

Infiltration/exfiltration can cause the bedding material supporting both the pipe and the road surface to slowly loosen and wash away, which is how a lot of sinkholes develop unnoticed.

See more here.

Pandemics – a major catalyst for modern sewer systems

Did you know that a pandemic (cholera) was one of the main catalysts for installing modern sewerage systems in both London and Paris?

Due to the Cholera pandemic in 1858, which hit over 10,000 residents, London saw raw sewage overflow into the River Thames that caused a strong repugnant odour, eventually forcing the government to construct a modern sewer system that transported the city’s waste as far as possible.

Similarly, amid the outbreak, in an attempt to remake Paris and open it up into a “City of Light”, French authorities went through the demolition of 12,000 buildings, boulevards, parks and fountains to install an elaborate sewage system.

Pandemics truly played a big part in transforming the cities of old.

As of today, wastewater still plays a critical role in monitoring the levels of pathogens in a particular region. Health officials in the state of Tyrol monitored levels of the novel coronavirus in the sewage to predict if the virus was truly on the decline. The result of this could help the region as they were highly reliant on tourism and will help decide to lift the lockdown. This method was particularly of interest to the SARS-CoV-2 because it replicates in the digestive system and is found in high quantities in human faeces most often before we get the symptoms. This method was relatively a less expensive one compared to the usual swab methodology. However, the Omicron variant seems to be showing up less in the faecal matter, this could possibly be due to the change in the virus variant or more immunity developed by humans. Eitherway to certain degree monitoring wastewater can clearly indicate pathogen levels in the region. For an elaborate read on this click here.

Read how VAPAR with its AI technology helps modern-day sewer and stormwater networks here.

VAPAR featured on IPWEA’s Inspire magazine

VAPAR has been honoured to be the feature story in the November issue of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) magazine. Click here to read more on ‘engineering’s new reality’.

CTO Michelle featured on Innovation Bay

Michelle Aguilar, our CTO, has had the privilege of being part of the Innovation Bay community in Australia, where she has been actively partaking in social and network events to broaden our networks and gain valuable insight into the Australian startup landscape. She has also been featured in their May newsletter, so head there to see what she had to say about our accomplishments and where we’re at.

Innovation Bay is a trusted, independent organisation and platform for entrepreneurs to learn, raise capital, network and collaborate with other companies and investors. It helps drive innovation across the Australian technology market to boost the economy by setting up startups with investors, mentors and leaders who invest their time, expertise, network and money to help grow innovation.

Innovation Bay also supports the environment that enables entrepreneurialism as it believes innovation can better the lives of our society by making the world a better place to live in. They do this by hosting multiple events all over Australia, ranging from breakfast meetings, founder and focus dinners, and setting up workshops that help equip entrepreneurs with the tools to achieve greater success.

To date, VAPAR has attended several of the Innovation Bay breakfasts and pitched at an AI Founder Dinner hosted by Innovation Bay. This has allowed us to hear from the best founders and investors that Australia has to offer.

Innovation Bay’s May newsletter: