Ticino- based startup heads to Texas

The first MassChallenge Texas Houston startup bootcamp, which kicked off on July 22, presents a very diverse cohort of participants, 26 startups operating across five different industries, half of which hailing from outside of Houston, thus bringing talent from innovation hubs like New York, San Francisco, and Switzerland. Representing the latter is Waterdata.

Founded in 2016 by Federico Stefanato, Simone Grandi, and Alessandro Di Lernia who bring expertise in Advanced Analytics and distributed data architectures, Waterdata was established with the objective to bring dynamic pricing, which is commonly used by airlines, to other "liquid" market contexts, where demand is significantly variable. This includes both digital and physical markets, which all have substantially unpredictable behaviour of customers, therefore of markets where the ‘human factor’ is still very relevant.

With Liquidprice, the company offers a cross-industry dynamic pricing solution that combines AI, dynamic pricing, and customer behaviour analysis. The solution is designed to solve revenue management challenges by optimizing the natural unbalancing between supply and demand, which are common to several sectors especially the e-commerce sector in retail, from food&beverage to consumer goods.

During the next six weeks in Houston, Waterdata will benefit from 6-months of free office space, gain access to industry experts, mentors, top corporations and more, all at zero cost and for zero equity. To further support promising early-stage startups, the program offers two week-long curriculum intensives at the beginning and end of the bootcamp, respectively. The week-long sessions will provide tailored instruction on topics like fundraising, entity selection, and designing corporate partnerships. At the culmination of the program, top startups will present at a demo day and closing celebration. Waterdata will seize the opportunity to expand its network and explore avenues to bring our value proposition to larger markets.

Success and big plans at home
In 2017, Waterdata obtained seed capital from the busienss angel Ferrante Enriques to launch Liquidprice. In the proceeding year, the startup obtained further investment from the TiVenture fund, a venture capital firm focusing on Hi-Tech companies. According to the Waterdada, the involvement of TiVenture gave the startup a significant boost, also in terms of networking, allowing the company to achieve new vertical developments, such as in the travel experiences sector.

The company also benefits from collaborations with IDSIA (Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence) in Lugano and with the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. Participation in MassChallenge Texas will enable the company to explore internationalisation opportunities.

Commenting on the startup's future plans, one of the founders spoke to Startupticker stating that: "We are now seeking to expand into other areas, such as smart mobility, pharmaceutical distribution and insurance services: our ambition, however, remains to bring dynamic pricing in physical stores, riding the wave of "phygital" – the integration of the digital and physical customer experience. We also set ourselves ambitious goals in terms of social and environmental value, such as reducing the waste of food at expiration in supermarkets. It's a long way, but we're determined and we're already building it.

(RAN)