120Water on growth tear, closes on $4.5M funding round

Zionsville-based water management software firm 120Water has seen a recent tidal wave of growth—and more is on the way.

This week, 120Water announced it has closed on a $4.5 million round of capital, which will fuel more growth for the firm.

The round was led by HG Ventures LLC, with support of Allos Ventures, both based in Indianapolis. The capital will fuel hiring in all areas of the organization, in addition to research and development to support further enhancements to 120Water’s Digital Water Platform, company officials said.

In the past year, 120Water nearly doubled its workforce—to 43 full-time employees, with the vast majority of them based in central Indiana. The fast-growing firm plans to hire 157 additional workers by the end of 2022, company officials told IBJ this week.

“We continue to be impressed by the team at 120Water and see considerable opportunity with the platform they’re building and in the digital water space more generally,” said Kip Frey, HG Ventures executive vice president. “Our investment reflects our enthusiasm for the team and our optimism about the future of the company.”

In 2020, 120Water achieved 250% year-over-year revenue growth and expanded its customer base to 19 states. Major new customers included Denver Water, the city of Newark, the city of Asheville and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau.

Last week, 120Water was named one of FastCompany’s most innovative companies for pursuing social good in 2020.

CEO Megan Glover launched the company as 120WaterAudit with two partners in 2016 with the idea of targeting residential consumers nationwide with a water-testing kit that cost $120 every four months.

Glover soon realized governments, schools and municipal water utilities were desperate for a modern way to organize their water-testing records. The company, which rebranded to 120Water in early 2020, pivoted to building and selling enterprise software—a move that helped it rapidly grow its revenue.

“The regulatory environment is creating new expectations for utilities and states, and our digital water platform makes us well positioned to significantly reduce the burden on our customers by automating some of the most challenging aspects of compliance,” Glover told IBJ in an email this week.

“Our end-to-end solution will help them build and validate their inventory of lead service lines, meet water sampling requirements and fulfill new expectations of transparency through our public dashboard and communications module,” she said. “This round of funding will help ensure we have the team and continued innovation needed to meet this moment.”

The most recent  funding comes on the heels of a $7 million Series A capital raise in 2019. The company raised a $2 million seed round in 2018. With the most recent funding round, 120Water has raised a total of $12.1 million in capital, company officials said.