Innovation is at the heart of what we do at OxyMem 

How Important is your First Year in Business?

It was the 18th of July 2013 when we first announced ourselves as a company and started on the road to becoming the first technology to disrupt the traditional trend of wastewater treatment in nearly 100 years! Today, we sat down to have a think about how important our first year in business has been – we quickly realised that it’s been momentous!

One year is a big milestone for any company – and that’s definitely the case for us as a start-up working to disrupt a historically static industry. In addition to building a solution that helps our customers save energy and reduce costs, we've created a team and culture that’s focused on continuous innovation. It’s fair to say we’re future-minded: we spend a lot of time thinking about how wastewater treatment should look in 2, 5, 10, or 20 years. But today, we want to share a bit of perspective on what we've done over the past twelve months and who has helped us.

We have had the backing and continued support of our research and funding partners University College Dublin and Enterprise Ireland. Their input has been imperative to our success so far. Our ability to reach back to our academic partners in UCD, where research of the OxyMem MABR began, is vital in keeping us on the innovative cusp of the industry. Enterprise Ireland are a key supporter of OxyMem having funded our early stages as one of their High Potential Start Ups of 2014 and allowing us the opportunities to get our business feet on the ground and begin production.

In January we secured a 2,500m² production facility in Athlone, Co. Westmeath. We have developed a best in class membrane production facility – something that has not been done outside of the medical sector. We have just installed our second production line on the manufacturing floor to keep up with demand and have created a number of relationships with local companies which are able to supply us with high quality components for production. It has been an ideal location for us!

Lucas loading a batch of OxyMem cassettes on its way to our demonstrator unit in the UK.

With spring upon us we waved goodbye to an OxyMem demonstrator system to the Severn Trent wastewater treatment facility in Minworth, Birmingham. An exciting time for us as we were putting our technology to the test in the UK’s second largest wastewater treatment facility. Minworth treats a population equivalent of 1.75 million and has one of the most sophisticated Activated Sludge plants in Europe – OxyMem is awaiting results on how well we benchmark against the existing systems and so far it’s looking very positive.

We hired our first 5 employees in January, and it’s been rousing to watch our team grow in such a short period. In fact, we've more than tripled in just the past 6 months. The team is now made up of 20 of the most dedicated, talented, smart and fun individuals a company can ask for. And we continue to grow – by the beginning of 2015 we plan on having 35 wonderful co-workers.

Innovation is at the heart of what we do at OxyMem – to be recognised for that is extremely humbling. This year, in addition to being named the BlueTech Research Disrupt-O-Meter award recipient, we received Innovation of the Year awards from The Irish Times & IntertradeIreland, the European SME Water Innovation Awards and the Irish Laboratory Awards. We are so thrilled to have endorsements for our work from these highly respected industry organisations.

Today we’re observing the anniversary of an exciting milestone and we do so with all of you! Each month 1,500 of you visit the OxyMem website for information about our technology and engage with our blog posts and news items. We've also met you at over 10 events throughout the World where we have presented our breakthrough technology and invited your queries and questions and encouraged you to share your thoughts.

So, how important is a first year in business? We can all safely say that our first year has been incredibly important and has set the scene for how we move forward. We want to thank everyone that has helped us succeed in our first year in business and express gratitude to all of you who will follow us on our exciting path into the future.