While initiating plans to take the Gelcard business across Europe and Asia, it didn’t take Mr Robinson too long to come up with his next and recently launched business venture, Water2.
While in Milan on a Gelcard business trip, Mr Robinson spotted a water filtration factory in the area, which was more industry-led rather than consumer.
He said: “It got me thinking that I didn’t know anything about water filters. And more than that, I could only name one brand, which was Britta.”
After comparing the asymmetry between this and the number of known household water brands, Mr Robsinson got working on Water2, a two-way solution to drinking cleaner, filtered water.
Mr Robinson said: “I wrote one to a very esteemed environmental engineer professor at UCL who worked for 30 or 40 years in water and water filtration. And remarkably, not many people reach out to these people, and these people dedicate their lives to the subject.
“They are very, very receptive. So I’ve now worked with Professor Louisa Preston for over two years, we’ve published two academic papers, one of which is going to be published in a leading water journal in the summer.”
Mr Robinson then worked with experts on establishing what technology to work with and a prototype, before months of testing with UCL to create the final product; an at-home water filtration system to install in a sink, which will soon expand to produce the filtered water in aluminium cans.
Mr Robinson noted: “It’s really important to me that, even though I’m young and I’ve just turned 22 and it’s a relatively small company, I didn’t want it to feel like we were cutting corners at any point. I wanted to really have that gut feeling and that trust of scientific credibility and innovation.”
