#7: Wastewater, climate change and funding the unfundable - Orianna Bretschger

Venturing Women

Worldwide, 80% of wastewater receives minimal to no treatment before being discharged to the environment. This practice has a ruinous impact on the environment as well as on public health.

Wastewater treatment is also a energy-intensive process. It can account for up to 5% of the country’s annual electricity load being a significant driver of climate change.

In this episode, we will hear from Orianna Bretschger, the CEO and Co-Founder of Aquacycl, a company that provides technologies for safe, reliable and cost-effective wastewater treatment coupled with energy recovery.

Topics we explore:

• Why do water treatment and sanitation still remain big challenges for the humanity?
• The role of water treatment in the global ecosystem and climate change.
• From academia to the startup jungle: Building a business on top of 12 years of research.
• The unfundable: A women-led hardware company raises money in a risk-averse and heavily regulated industry. Mission impossible?

About Orianna Bretschger:

Orianna Bretschger is the CEO and Co-Founder of Aquacycl. It was founded in 2016 with a goal of creating distributed wastewater treatment to address water scarcity and lack of infrastructure in low-income countries. This journey has led the founding team to a deeper understanding of wastewater challenges across many industries.

Prior to forming Aquacycl, Orianna dedicated 12 years to researching how bacteria breathe and eat and developing a technology to control this process electronically. A researcher turned entrepreneur, Orianna is a laureate of the Science & Technology Pioneer Award of the Cartier Women’s Initiative. Orianna is based in California, US.

About Darya Kamkalova:

Darya wears many hats: she is podcaster, a data industry professional, a co-founder of Manifest Taproom (a craft beer bar in Berlin), startup evaluator and mentor, an investor, and a speaker.

Her experience in the data industry spans 10 years, five continents and such domains as data monetisation & acquisition, data product development, strategic partnerships as well as data marketplace business operations.

Darya has been driving or supporting various projects empowering women since 2013. She is based in Berlin.

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