CHICAGO– An innovative start-up, Hydrosome Labs, with an experienced team combining scientists, advisors, and businesspeople from the likes of Nestle, Chobani, Procter & Gamble, Argonne National Labs, and Goldman Sachs, has developed a natural and chemical-free process improving the power of water through the emerging science of ultrafine bubbles. The innovative process delivers active ingredients to cells more efficiently and completely. Commercial uses include helping plants grow faster and healthier with less fertilizer, improving nutrient uptake in skin care, delivering faster, longer lasting, and enhanced hydration in performance drinks, and more efficient precision fermentations. Hydrosome Labs said its discovery will create a new ingredient brand for firms using water to deliver active ingredients.
The firm calls its technology a win for consumers, manufacturers, and investors alike. It also notes the sustainability benefits of allowing manufacturers to do more with less, use fewer chemicals, reduce environmental impact, and shorten supply chains.
Hydrosome completed a seed funding round last year and expects to close a Series A round this spring.
Hydrosome Labs will announce a licensing deal with a major beauty company known for its innovative technologies in a few months. That company is calling the new ultrafine bubble technology the next big breakthrough in skincare and the company’s “latest exciting formulation innovation.” Hydrosome Labs notes that water has traditionally been a passive ingredient in beauty products. With Hydrosome, H2O water is transformed into a functional ingredient and active delivery system that enhances the efficacy and performance of ingredients and formulas to maximize consumer benefits from wrinkle reduction to increased firmness, elasticity, and hydration.
Hydrosome estimates the total US market for the categories it’s entering to be over 180 billion dollars. The business approach is a branded ingredient and royalty model with the “Hydrosome H2O” logo featured on pack and in marketing. The water is not shipped but instead made at the licensee’s factories with small but scalable equipment to meet the needs of any company of any size and readily incorporated in line with other water treatment systems. The equipment is licensed with Hydrosome Labs, taking a SAAS-type approach to platform servicing.
“Simply put, water is essential to life. It’s second only to oxygen as the most essential substance for survival, yet people take for granted that it will always function the same,” said Paul Gadbut, CEO of Hydrosome Labs. “History is filled, though, with natural substances improved upon for the benefit of society – carbon into carbon fiber, silica into computer chips, and more. What if water itself could be improved naturally and sustainably? That’s what our technology does.”
At its core is a new process leveraging established science to improve the ability of water to deliver active ingredients to cells more effectively and efficiently. How does it work? A common occurrence in water is the formation of bubbles creating a structure that traps gases.
But not all bubbles are created equal. About 30 years ago, scientists began to investigate the formation of very tiny bubbles in water, sometimes referred to as ultrafine bubbles. These bubbles, invisible to the naked eye and among the smallest ever detected, have unique properties. Hydrosome’s ultra-fine bubbles, “Hydrosomes,” have four characteristics no other water technology has.
Hydrosome H2O can improve the performance of almost any product where cell absorption is necessary, from consumer products to agriculture to industrial products requiring fermentation to life sciences. Because many pseudo-science claims have been made for a variety of “special” waters over the years, Hydrosome Labs is taking the opposite approach, investing in more than 100 scientific studies, human trials, and collaborations with prestigious, thought-leading institutions like the University of Chicago and Cornell University. It currently has two granted patents, with several others recently filed. Although the company expects new entrants to the market, it’s unaware of any competitor with the unique and long-lasting properties of Hydrosome H2O.
