Group Overview
The Group has two operating subsidiaries – American Leak Detection (ALD), the Group’s core business, and Water Intelligence International (WII) – around which we attack global market demand for solutions to failing water infrastructure whether in homes, buildings or municipalities. Through both subsidiaries, the Group has offerings for any diameter pipe – small, medium, large – and for both clean water and wastewater problems. Further, each subsidiary embodies our value proposition of using proprietary technology in monitoring, analyzing data for preventive care, providing pinpoint leak detection and repair and then enabling subscription-based aftercare. As a result, as a multinational company, we can provide “five star”, “first responder” level of service and deliver minimally invasive outcomes that not only save on water bills but also save on property damage. Our Go-to-Market strategy has been to prioritize development of our Technology-Enabled Service Platform (TES) in the US given our extensive market presence through ALD and then to scale our business model with our assets and locations outside of the US through our WII subsidiary.
American Leak Detection Service Platform (ALD)
Incorporated in California in 1974, ALD changed the residential services industry by pioneering the use of proprietary acoustic technology and commercially-available infrared devices to pinpoint water leaks as opposed to traditional methods of visual inspection followed by breaking walls or digging up surfaces until the origins of the water leak could be found. ALD’s focus over time and its highest value jobs have been on remedying hidden or difficult to find leaks related to small-diameter pipes: houses, swimming pools, commercial structures. Because unattended or unknown leaks only get worse over time creating even greater damage, homeowners and business-to-business customers (B2B) such as property management, and insurance companies, rely on ALD’s quality of service and technologies to make a difference in finding and fixing with minimal destruction.
Over the last fifty years, the ALD brand has expanded across the United States with both corporate-operated locations and franchise-operating locations; all locations operate under the same ALD brand and standards. As a result, ALD owns the premier service network (Service Network) – 150+ locations across 46 states – tied together by a world-class Salesforce CRM that stores all customer records securely in the cloud. Moreover, ALD has connected its CRM to B2B channels such as insurance companies and property management to ensure efficient dispatch of service professionals across the US no matter where problems arise.
Today, with the lower cost of monitoring devices and the use of AI to use data, ALD is able to leverage its premier Service Network by reselling the leading monitoring products and using AI and stored data to provide predictive maintenance and aftercare for its clients.
ALD has embraced technology from its inception and looks at itself as a technology company not simply a water infrastructure services company. In fact, as discussed herein, ALD’s business model is to leverage its Service Network as a Technology-Enabled Services Platform that includes distribution of products such as monitoring.
Beyond monitoring and aftercare, ALD is constantly innovating to contribute to the evolution of the 21st century “smart home” or “smart building.” ALD has teamed up with researchers at world-class universities such as Yale, Columbia and Stanford, to develop new digital tools to provide solutions for water and wastewater infrastructure. For example, ALD has developed through its affiliate Plainsight which is centered at Yale, a device – Leakvue – that enables faster and more efficient leak detection in complicated structures such as swimming pools. In addition, as set forth below, ALD is leveraging proprietary acoustic technologies and devices developed by its UK sister subsidiary (WII) for various needs in the U.S.
ALD Water Management
ALD’s solutions roadmap is robust and geared towards leveraging its US Service Network for both sales and execution. ALD Water Management (ALDWM) is a specialized subsidiary launched by ALD after the acquisition of certain patents for lining open channels used to convey water. ALD customers, especially in agribusiness, expressed a need for innovation beyond pin-point leak detection with respect to failing irrigation systems in order to minimize water leakage as water is moved in earthen or concrete channels from rivers or reservoirs. ALDWM uses a patented design and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) material to deliver water efficiently with essentially zero losses due to leakage. The liner also provides puncture and abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, and the same top-level performance even in freeze and thaw cycles. Finally, ID’s solution is easy to install for customers. A small crew of ALD professionals using only hand tools is able to cover more than 500 linear feet per day. ALDWM launched its first commercial pilot in Avon, Colorado with Ferguson LLC – the largest plumbing supply distributor in the United States. Today, it has continued to execute various sales opportunities in the Western part of the US, most recently New Mexico.
Water Intelligence International
WII extends ALD’s TES Platform to non-US geographies. Failing water infrastructure is a global problem. WII executes a full range of services for pinpoint leak detection and repair of smaller diameter pipes that affect homeowners, property management and insurance companies, as well as, large diameter pipes for municipalities. The leadership team of WII has extensive experience in municipal jobs around the world which it is sharing with the ALD leadership team to feed ALD capabilities.
WII has been built both organically and through acquisition. It is growing rapidly and operates with locations in the UK (headquarters), Ireland, Australia and Canada. In addition, WII has executed municipal infrastructure projects in various parts of the EU and Middle East that may lead to new locations being added. WII has also worked with ALD to execute jobs in the Caribbean.
It is important to underscore that like its sister company ALD, WII is also a leader in innovation developing technology outside of the US. WII has developed proprietary acoustic tools to solve for difficult water and wastewater problems. It has done so both through its own R&D as well as through acquisition of patents and transforming their use cases. For example, WII has developed a proprietary tool designated as “Leak Survey 1” or “LS1”. LS1 captures acoustic data with respect to water flow in a cost-effective way and is able to process such data securely in the cloud. LS1 reduces the cost of municipal survey work by an order of magnitude. WII is working with ALD to introduce LS1 in the US to bring down labor costs for municipal work. Separately, WII has also acquired patents from a UK military company and re-purposed such intellectual property to develop acoustic tools that pinpoint wastewater blockages much faster and more accurately than CCTV.
SEEEN
Seeen is a video technology company that is an affiliate of Water Intelligence plc. SEEEN owns a proprietary technology that leverages natural language processing and AI to select “moments” from full length video and serve it directly to the viewer based on the viewer’s text-based searching from a video library. Water Intelligence has an exclusive license to the technology for the field of use of water.
The applications of SEEEN technology for the Group’s business focus on two key dimensions of the TES platform that ALD has set up. First, SEEEN’s “video moments” assist in training ALD technicians far more efficiently by enabling the professionals to access short video “refreshers” on new tools and products. As the Group grows dispatching technicians to be “first responders” via its CRM, the SEEEN technology can provide video briefing packs for higher quality services. To enhance its training capabilities, SEEEN recently acquired Medial Technologies, a leader in the on-line education space.
Second, in addition to training, video moments can be used for digital marketing and e-commerce. ALD’s TES platform enables consumers to purchase monitoring devices to combine with preventive maintenance services. Video moments can provide instructions and training for purchasers of such devices and enhance the user experience.