Mitte Closes Seed Round For At-Home Water Mineralization And Bottling System

High-quality water is a cool market these days, mostly because it’s heating up.

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As the soft drink market begins to inch away from sugary beverages, bottled water is in a growth cycle. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of millions of pounds of plastic entering the waste stream.

One of the companies trying to seize that opportunity is Mitte, a German startup based in Berlin, which designs and distributes a “first of its kind smart home water system.” The product distills tap water, adds back trace minerals, and does so with reusable components.

Today, the company announced that it’s raised $10.6 million in seed funding. The round was led by Danone Manifesto Ventures (the venture investment arm of French food conglomerate Danone), VisVires New Protein Capital, and Kärcher New Venture.

In 2017, Mitte ran a product crowdfunding campaign which raised nearly €273,000 from 827 backers on Kickstarter. The campaign was 360 percent over-funded, having initially targeted a fundraise of €75,000.

According to a statement from the company, the seed funding announced today will help Mitte expand into the U.S. market.

“We are confident that Mitte’s positive impact will affect every aspect of the way people consume water,” said Founder and CEO Mortiz Waldstein in a company statement.

In addition to making a positive impact on the environment, Mitte also has an opportunity to fatten its investors’ bottom line. A recent public-market deal shows how. In mid-August, PepsiCo made a bid to acquire SodaStream, which manufactures an at-home water carbonation system, for $3.2 billion. The still-pending transaction shows that there are paths to liquidity for niche kitchen device companies built around one of life’s essential ingredients.