Short Summary
How it all got started: The story of the first poolbot. Our Founder, Heinrich, tells this story.
“Born out of sheer frustration and annoyance, the first Poolbot was assembled in late 2016… My brother and I, both electronic engineers had had enough of endless pool testing kits, tons of money spent on chemicals, pool gadgets and swampy water. So we put our minds together to dream up a device that would forever change the way we maintain our pools.
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We wanted an easy, affordable, no-nonsense device that would take the guess work out of having a clear, healthy pool and it also had to have an easy-to-use app so that we could maintain it from anywhere in the world. Primitive market research among friends, family and the local pool shop proved we weren’t the only ones feeling the frustration and soon we had more requests for devices than we could keep up with.
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And so the first Poolbot was tossed into a murky, green pool in early 2017 and with lots of late nights, tweaking and calibrating the first pool turned from green to clean! What we started with was a bunch of electronics and some kitty litter in a floating lunch box, but it worked and that got us noticed by Sqwidnet – and airport security a few times!”
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The Innovation Hub shared our excitement when we were announced as one of the winners of the prestigious GAP ICT Awards in late 2017. We partnered with Sqwidnet (who provides the IoT network we use) and then we started to really gain some momentum.
Since then we successfully raised further grant and private funding and have been refining our prototypes to work out any remaining snags. We have had tremendous success with keeping numerous pools in pristine condition and we look forward to the next stage in our journey with you as our partners in our fight against swampy pools and frustrating test kits.
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Above: Then vs. Now. Our prototype electronics (above) fully industrialized onto a single, small board (below) ready for full scale production.
It’s not only a device that we are building but we want to simplify the whole experience of owning a pool. So we are bringing the complete service to market under our PoolSense brand.
Above: Our first casing tops coming out of the mold injector. Exciting stuff.
Our app is live available on the AppStore and Google Play Store:
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Scan the QR code below to load our live test pool data:
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We strive to bring Innovative, Smart, Simple solutions to the Connected Home IoT market. Our products use state-of-the-art components and technology that aim to make your life easier. As a company we are focused on making people’s lives easier through innovative technology in the IoT space.
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The PoolSense product addresses the first major problem we have found and developed a solution for. The recent worldwide rollout of the Sigfox IoT Network, in conjunction with our platform and expertise opens many opportunities globally.
What We Need & What You Get
Prize money has enabled us to complete prototype design and testing and we are now ready to begin full-scale manufacture. But we need your help!
Getting our first units sold into the market will really give us a solid foundation and economy of scale to ensure that we are able to keep our product as affordable and possible.
We offer the following:
- Your PoolSense device, delivered to your door
- 12 Months of free data to use our app
- Early Birds get 24 months of data and save 45%
- Re-sellers can buy multiples and save up to 45%
We have set a flexible goal because we already have some funds to get started. However, we do need your help to launch us into the market with a bang! The funds raised here will go towards fulfilling your orders ASAP and start on our next batch of products for after the campaign finishes. Achieving economy-of-scale will help us keep PoolSense as affordable as possible so everyone can have a hassle-free pool!
The Impact
We truly believe that PoolSense will change the way you care for your pool water. Forever! We aim to bring more exciting projects to market that use simple smart technologies to make your life easier. Through our supply chain partners we hope to grow their businesses along with ours and create jobs that ultimately uplift communities and teach new skills.
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As a prize winner in the 2017 GAP ICT awards, PoolSense was taken into the Maxum Business Incubator Programme (Maxum). Maxum provides funding and services to entrepreneurs to help them start and grow companies that will create jobs, commercialize innovative technologies and improve business competitiveness.
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We have also been endorsed by high profile business influencers and are very proud of how far we have come in a relatively short space of time. Click HERE to watch our Q&A with CEO Phathizwe Malinga.
Risks & Challenges
Our initial challenge was finding the right supply chain partners with the necessary capabilities and expertise to bring our product to life. Our career experience and extensive network allowed us to meet the right people and find what we need to ensure a fast, reliable and efficient supply chain. Each of us bring unique skills to the table which allow us to manage our business in a very balanced and holistic way.
There are quite a few legislative and administrative issues that could derail a project like ours (i.e. export requirements, shipping of tech products with batteries, etc) but we are confident that we have the right partners and necessary expertise to ensure we deliver in full and on time.
Other Ways You Can Help
We would LOVE for you to help us announce to the world that HASSLE-FREE POOL CARE IS FINALLY HERE! Please go to our website and find out more, find us on social media, like, share and help us make PoolSense and great success! Indiegogo has some great share tools to help you – to help us! We very much appreciate every effort made.