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A startup developing the world’s most affordable water purifier has won the latest Pitch@Palace

CleanTech company, Desolentator, has won the latest Pitch@Palace business pitching event at St James’s Palace after fending off the challenge from 11 other startups.

The final of the competition, now in its seventh iteration, was held last night (Wednesday) and saw startups pitching their businesses to the Duke of York alongside other influential enterprise representatives and investors.

Focused around the theme of human tech, competing businesses and entrepreneurs were presenting innovations and products which utilised technology to improve people’s everyday lives.

Desolenator’s 100% solar powered water purifier proved a hit with judges and the audience, as the potential of its clean tech solution to transform the lives of millions of people around the world who lack access to clean drinking water separated it from the competition.

Founded in London, the startup is developing its patented technology which it says could be the most affordable water purifier in the market, and can transform seawater or contaminated water into drinking water.

Following the firm’s success. Louise Bleach, Business Development Manager at Desolenator said: “The whole process has been a fantastic journey. Building a business from the ground up is never easy and we feel like this is an incredible milestone for us at Desolenator.

“We would like to say thank you to the wonderful team at Pitch@Palace and HRH The Duke of York for all the support and introductions. It was a fantastic cohort of companies and we are excited to see what the next few months bring. Now the real work begins!”

The win has the potential to be a real door opener for the startup with previous winners such as AI firm Magic Pony (later acquired by Twitter) going on to bigger and better things thanks to the industry links and networking forged at the event.

The Duke of York hailed the calibre of the entrepreneurs which took part in the latest event and said he was ‘immensely proud’ of what the participants at Pitch@Palace 7.0 had achieved.

He added: “The support and generosity of all those involved in Pitch@Palace made the final event incredibly successful. I greatly look forward to hearing more about the future successes of Desolenator and of all the entrepreneurs that have taken part.”

Another winner on the night was Realsafe Technologies, which took home the People’s Choice Award, the award voted for by the public out of the 43 startups who participated in the Pitch@Palace Boot Camp.

The startup has developed an app which utilised motorcycle crash detection to automatically alert the NHS emergency services when a motorcyclist has an accident.

Entries are already open for Pitch@Palace 8.0 which will take place later this year.