Water will continue to top global agendas - and investors’ portfolios
Water and crises caused by its scarcity will continue to make their way to the top of the global agenda in 2024 and well beyond.
And it’s with good reason: in a 2020 paper, the World Resource Institute anticipated a global 56% deficit between global renewable water supply and demand by 2030. However, population and economic growth and the unpredictable rate of climate change mean that the deficit may be even greater.
As Gartner has already noted, 2024 will see the rise of sustainability-focused technology. In the case of water, investment will grow significantly: while a number of well-established funds dedicated to investment in water conservation and replenishment already exist, they will become almost ubiquitous by the end of 2024. At the same time, water companies as an investment class will significantly outperform the market in terms of both gaining commercial traction and fundraising.
Economic pressures will force real estate owner-operators to get to grips with all water leaks
Real estate owner-operators will continue to feel the impact of a turbulent global economy, and will be actively looking for ways to increase operational efficiencies and ROI. While large water leaks are already part of any professionally-maintained property portfolio’s playbook, in 2024 attention will turn to smaller water leaks. More frequent and less likely to be claimed on insurance because of deductibles, we anticipate some owner-operators will be shocked to discover just how much all these small water leaks cost them (possibly even more than the large leaks).
Meanwhile, insurers like AXA XL have already identified the need for their business customers to invest in high quality water leak detection solutions. Some US-based insurance companies already require the use of water leak detection as a condition of providing coverage. In 2024, we expect this to continue, and potentially cross the Atlantic.
LoRaWAN® will move from Early Adopter to Early Majority
In 2021 LAIIER picked LoRa® and LoRaWAN as its connectivity solution, believing that the standard had advantages over Wi-Fi, 5G, and Bluetooth that would make it the long term winner in the smart building space. In 2023 we saw significant evidence of this, with many of our large customers building their own LoRa networks, and actively embracing the ecosystem.
Through numerous conversations, it’s clear that 2024 will be a breakout year for LoRa, with hundreds of end nodes (sensors) on the market and dozens of gateways, customers now have a fantastic menu to choose from. And thanks to the fantastic performance of our products, we know that in 2024 many of them will choose LAIIER.
LAIIER will raise a strong Series A and drive the growth of Dynamically Functional Surfaces™
With a strong 2023 behind us, LAIIER is set for significant further growth in 2024. To start, we’ll be raising a Series A to fuel our expansion into both the US and the EU, growing both the team to support our current Severn WLD™ and the development of our product portfolio past water leak detection into other critical continuous monitoring applications.
We will continue to invest in the development of Severn WLD, including releasing a second generation of devices. We will collaborate closely with enterprise customers on water replenishment strategies as they drive to reduce or offset their water consumption. as part of their overall sustainability portfolio.
In 2024, we will start to realize our vision of creating Dynamically Functional Surfaces: a portfolio of smart sensing products. To achieve this, we will continue to invest in R&D - both as part of our core program, and in partnership with key customers.