HaloSource, a clean water tech company based in Bothell-Wash., said it has raised $2.2 million and landed a distribution agreement with a Chinese e-commerce company to sell water filtration products in China.
The funding round includes institutional investors Invesco, Hargreave Hale, and Woodford Investment Management along with Italian manufacturing partner Chematek. The company plans to use the funding round to bring to market a new line of filtration devices that HaloSource says removes 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, as well as heavy metals, from water to ensure that it is safe to drink.
The Chinese distribution deal is with JiuBan Industrial Co. HaloSource said the five-year distribution agreement could bring in more than $10 million in revenue for the company. JiuBan will market HaloSource’s new line of water-filtration products including water bottles, water pitchers and replacement cartridges in China, where the market for water filtration products is growing at more than 30 percent per year, HaloSource said.
HaloSource CEO James Thompson said the company has raised a total of $120 million in its history, but this current round is the first focused specifically on drinking water and the company’s first cash infusion since 2014.
The publicly-traded company today has 60 employees, which is down from 110 in the start of 2015, according to its most recent annual report. This downsizing came as the company cut corporate staff, sold off its recreational and environmental water businesses and closed a manufacturing plant in India.
On its website HaloSource says it brings clean, drinkable water to more than 10 million people in China, India and Latin America. That number will be on the rise, the company says, as issues of water quality continue to intensify.
“We believe that we have a perfect alignment of technology-driven products and consumer need in a world where people are drinking more water for health reasons, but worry about the continued deterioration of water quality. The awareness of the issue grows every day,” Thompson said in a statement.
