Interview with Sami Khoreibi and Sebastien Wakim, founders of Wisewell

What motivated you to start this business?  

The way we drink and deliver water globally is flawed and we want to fix it. Today, we fill up plastic bottles with a single serving of water half-way across the world and put it on a ship or a plane, often drinking it months after microplastics have already leached into the water. The existing system is terrible for the planet, our health and our wallets, and it needs to change.

What does Wisewell offer?  

Wisewell is an installation-free water purification technology that uses full-spectrum filtration to turn tap water into the highest quality of mineralised water. It includes multiple sensors in the device and a web-connected app that shares data and insights on water quality, filter life and many metrics that allow users to see their individual impact in reducing carbon footprint whilst also saving money at the same time. We wanted to provide both active and dynamic tools for people to engage with, ones that could help them better understand the role water plays in their health, and also the impact that their ‘water decisions’  have on the planet.Last but not the least, we wanted to make water purification cool and technology driven, not very different from what Tesla did for the electric car.

What are some of the challenges you faced when starting off? 

We started developing our first model when Covid restrictions and long quarantine periods were still in place globally. Having teams engaged in Canada, UAE and China meant we had to fully depend on video calls and shipping our many versions of the Wisewell prototypes to our various teams until we were “production ready”.

Getting a product from zero to mass production and now delivery amidst these challenges and changing economic landscape was a unique challenge, but we overcame it.

Tell us about  your operations in the UAE.

We are a Dubai-based company, but truly have an international operating model with many of our team members based in Toronto, Brooklyn and Shenzhen.Our global outlook has expanded with our Wisewell units being available across the US and throughout the UAE, which is just the beginning of our journey in bringing Wisewell into everyone’s home. 

We’ve taken another step in that direction through our recently launched subscription service in the UAE, whereby households and businesses can get all their water for only Dhs150 per month. Our dream to make Wisewell water available to all is supported by our partnership with Splash, which is a charity focused on providing children with access to clean water.  For every gallon of water produced by a Wisewell, we provide a gallon of clean water to children that need it most. 

What are some of the expansion plans in your pipeline?

We want to disrupt the way we drink water, with intelligent hydration that is better for our planet, health and bank accounts. Water access, safety, sustainability and affordability are truly global issues, and thus our total addressable market is ultimately a global one. In the region, Saudi Arabia will likely be our next market and the prospects in
the region and beyond are quite exciting.