With $3-million pre-seed round, Xatoms launches pilot projects to purify water with quantum chemistry

A little sunlight, and a little photocatalytic powder. That’s all Toronto-based cleantech startup Xatoms says it takes to make contaminated water drinkable.

The process involves quantum chemistry and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify photocatalysts, or substances that react with light to purify water. Now, Xatoms has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding to help commercialize its technology for industries and consumers.

The round, which closed last week, consists of $2 million in equity and $1 million in non-dilutive grants. Sherbrooke, Que.-based Quantacet led the round, with participation from European fund Genesis Ventures, BDC Thrive Lab, BROMAC Capital’s Ian Fergusson, BoxOne Ventures, and the founders of publication The Quantum Insider and media company Viral Nation. Five angel investors, including SheBoot founder Jennifer Francis, also participated.

“Just as drug companies are discovering drugs for different diseases, we want to discover different photocatalysts for contaminants in water.”

The funding is set to launch Xatoms onto the next phase of its global ambitions. CEO Diana Virgovicova, who hails from Slovakia, was inspired to find a way to purify water on a backpacking trip to Mumbai, when she learned about how women are disproportionately impacted by a lack of access to clean water. Globally, women are more often tasked with fetching water for their households and are more adversely impacted by water-related illnesses, according to the World Health Organization.

What began as a desire to fix a problem turned into a multi-year, international quest to quickly make water safe and potable. At 17, Virgovicova was awarded the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for discovering a specific molecule that could break down organic pollutants—like bacteria, herbicides, and pesticides—when activated by sunlight.

Armed with a Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship, Virgovicova moved to Toronto and started Xatoms, to introduce and discover new photocatalysts that could similarly purify water. She then nabbed a Cansbridge Fellowship, where she met her eventual co-founders, COO Shirley Zhong and CTO Kerem Topal Ismail Oglou.

When light hits a photocatalyst, it bumps it up to a higher energy state, causing chemical reactions to occur around it. In water, some of these chemical reactions can kill or neutralize harmful materials lurking inside it.

To find these photocatalysts, Xatoms uses quantum chemistry, or the principles of quantum mechanics that guide the way atoms and molecules interact with each other at the smallest scale. Then, an AI computing technique called a neural network is used to speed up the discovery process as it can sift through large amounts of data, saving time and money on experimentation.

Once identified, Xatoms turns the photocatalysts into powder form, which can coat filters or be added directly to water to eliminate contaminants.

As crucial as that use case may be, it’s not the only thing photocatalysts can do. The materials are being deployed in green hydrogen production and self-cleaning surfaces to destroy germs on contact.

“Just as drug companies are discovering drugs for different diseases, we want to discover different photocatalysts for contaminants in water,” Virgovicova said.

Lab Photo 111 | BetaKit — The Xatoms founding team in their lab in Mississauga, Ont. Image courtesy Xatoms.

The startup has already patented eight different materials. Now, it’s looking to sell powders to water filtration companies, and potentially, to mining companies looking to detoxify water close to extraction sites. Xatoms is running three pilot projects: one with a filtration company in Texas, one with a community lacking potable water in Kenya, and one for eliminating E. coli from a river in South Africa.

Though its tech originally only targeted biohazards, it can now neutralize heavy metals such as mercury in water, Virgovicova told BetaKit. Part of this is tackling a severe problem in Canada: ensuring Indigenous communities have consistent access to clean drinking water. According to Indigenous Services Canada, there are currently 37 boil-water advisories lasting over a year in effect in First Nations reserves across the country. The CEO said Xatoms is exploring working with First Nations in Northern Ontario to leverage its tech.

Xatoms’ potential to commercialize beyond water purification made the investment decision easy for Quantacet partner Chloé Archambault.

“There’s one clear market they can go into for the next few years, then there’s this huge potential to diversify into other markets,” Archambault told BetaKit.

Xatoms has received a significant amount of external support, including taking the top prize at Startupfest and earning Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Fellowship grant. Virgovicova has connected with top levels of international humanitarian efforts for clean water, including Water.org co-founder Matt Damon.

But even with all that momentum, the Xatoms team said raising its first venture round was a struggle. Zhong told BetaKit that they went through more than 400 pitch meetings.

“With deep tech, the revenue path is sometimes unclear, how quickly we can actually commercialize it,” Virgovicova said. “At the beginning, no one wanted to invest, but now we [are] oversubscribed.”

Deep tech and quantum technology are seen as scarier for investors, Archambault said, because they are often more capital-intensive up front and require more expertise to conduct due diligence.

While fundraising, the Xatoms team also tried to steer clear of additional barriers by not publicizing their ages (both Zhong and Virgovicova are in their early 20s). The first time they officially revealed their ages, the co-founders said, was when they were profiled in Forbes 30 Under 30 this year.

The team may be young, but it’s amassing years of expertise in its niche. Xatoms just hired five PhD-trained scientists and plans to grow its team of 11, eight of whom are women. The makeup of the team ties back to Virgovicova’s original, personal goal for the company.

“We want to keep raising awareness about water problems and how it affects mainly women,” she said. “We want to drive revenue across North America, but also give back and impact communities.”

Feature image courtesy Xatoms.