OWO Technologies is India’s next-generation e-commerce startup which is building India’s first e-com 2.0 platform and creating an ecosystem that not only delivers essential products and services tailor-made for every consumer but also brings a whole new virtual world for a unique consumer experience never done before in the country.
OWO has just launched its revolutionary WaaS -water as a service platform through which it offers a path-breaking, next-generation smart water purifier/RO under a monthly subscription plan enabling access to safe drinking water to one and all.
WaaS is a subscription-based service at INR 499/- a month that will provide the healthiest water accessible to every Indian home. With this new line of business, OWO targets to sell 5000 units of RO in the first two quarters and aims to have 2.5 crores of annual recurring revenue for the subscription of WaaS. In 3 years, they plan to take the annual recurring revenue over 100 crores.
Starting in June 2020, OWO saw an overwhelming response with 500 customers in just two months and has since then grown to a size of more than 7000 customers.
Ajay Chhangani, Co-founder OWO in an exclusive interview with India Tech Desk, deliberated over the path to success for a startup aiming to deliver clean drinking water to every next house of the country.
Would you please briefly inform us of the specifics of the client base?
Approx 2500+ retailers, 750+ Corporates, institutions and hotels and some of the names include Hotel Leela, Artemis Hospital, Uniqlo, CK Birla Hospitals, Hotel Hyatt Regency, etc.
Besides this, more than 1000+ individual customers/Households are using our services within GURGAON.
How are your clients benefiting from your services? Would you please explain with an example?
With its revolutionary WaaS offering (water as a service) OWO has made safe water accessible with its subscription plans starting at as low as INR 499/- a month and offers mineral-rich alkaline water to one and all.
OWO app thoroughly analyses the water for contamination, total dissolved solids (TDS) levels, etc. The company installs the water purifier free of cost. The purifier is linked to the customer’s phone so that the customers can check for real-time water quality and TDS of the water they drink.
It is a subscription-based service that will provide the healthiest water accessible to every Indian home. OWO focuses on the delivery of all essential products and services with a key focus on safe and healthy drinking water.
What are your expansion plans and how do you plan to expand pan India?
We have just launched in Delhi and Jaipur. We plan to launch in Noida and Pune by the end of February 2022. At the end of 2022, we shall be present in at least 20 cities.
What challenges does the portable water industry face or will face as the race to provide potable water intensifies from an industry perspective and company perspective?
The Major challenges include Customer feedback and quality. As most of the players run their businesses through channels, there is hardly a mechanism to get customer feedback regularly.
Due to multiple levels in between, it increases the cost quite a bit. OWO is a D2C brand and we get live access to our customers and vice versa. This allows us to update and improve our products and services.
Duplicate product is one issue but the quality itself has been compromised however, with OwO, real-time TDS and water quality can be tracked with the help of our app.
Would you please elaborate on how OWO caters to a market that is laden with water purifying players commanding different regions?
Our strategy to go directly to consumers (D2C) is playing a crucial role in differentiating us from others as we customize the solution for each consumer individually based on their needs and the parameters of source water.
Apart from this, we bring transparency through the OWO water app to provide live data on TDS checks. This makes us a first if its kind entity. Our products are also ahead in terms of technology and features.
Most of our products have an unbuilt dispenser to ensure that customers get all forms of water – hot, normal and cold. And most importantly, we provide 100 percent free maintenance throughout the lifetime. And last but not the least, this is all at just 499/- per month.
Would you please talk with data about the demand of your services and their performance?
There are two sets of demand we are coming across.
One, from the set of people who are going for ROs or Purifiers or our WAAS services for the first time. The demand for such new clients is approx. 1,000 per month in one city which is Gurgaon. If we talk about NCR, then demand is as high as 5,000 a month.
The second set of demand comes from people who are using RO/Purifier from other brands and many of them have been wrongly sold an RO even if they didn’t need it practically speaking. They needed just a purifier. These two are currently 1,500 per month.
But as we create awareness for the people at large, this demand will shoot up to 10,000 per month in NCR alone.
What are some of your current focus areas?
Serving the people in NCR, Rajasthan, UP and Pune is the first set of priorities. We want to bring OWO to every second home in these towns. We want to make healthy and safe water accessible to one and all across India. We will keep upgrading our technology to ensure that our customers get the best in the industry.
