HaloSource reaps new investment

Water filtration startup HaloSource brought in $10 million in investment in January to expand commercialization of its drinking water purification technology.

The Bothell-based firm makes purification technologies for drinking, industrial and recreational water. Its HaloPure cartridge purifies drinking water at point-of-use without need for electricity or piped water.

The company markets its technology to device makers, such as WAL, a Swiss company that makes filtration devices, which in late 2009 agreed to use HaloPure in its products. The market for such purification technologies in India and China, where HaloSource has facilities, is growing by about 20 percent annually, the company says.

In 2009, HaloPure became the first drinking water purification technology to receive approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in more than a decade, which has been key to driving its adoption, according to HaloSource chief financial officer James Thompson.

HaloSource has raised more than $30 million since 2007 from investors including the Masdar Clean Tech Fund and Unilever Technology Ventures. Collectively, water companies brought in a total of $117 million in venture funding in 2009, according to Cleantech Group—about 2 percent of the overall $5.6 billion directed to cleantech ventures last year.