Overview

Before Water-to-Go, Dave Shanks and co-founder Cheryl Farrell, headed a textiles company that manufactured and distributed clothing brands across the World. Dave made frequent trips to India, Indonesia and China and was aghast to see ever growing mountains of plastic waste whenever he visited an industrial area. A large contributor to the problem was discarded single-use water bottles. Work began on advancing a technology that was originally developed for NASA. From this, the Water-to-Go ‘3-in-1 nanotechnology Filters’ were born! Combining three different technologies, the results were perfect for all outdoor pursuits and travel as all microbiological contaminants are filtered with up to 99.9999% efficiency (see testing). Realising that here was a technology that could provide clean healthy water almost anywhere and which could also reduce the environmental damage being done was the motivation to establish the Water-to-Go brand and business. The challenge was, and still is, to create an organization that could positively communicate the benefits to the global marketplace with limited resources. After investing a large amount of his own money, Dave brought on board a number of individual investors to help develop and grow the business. Many of them offered specialist business skills and experience as well as investment. In 2014, a further tranche of investment was raised by crowdfunding through Crowdcube bringing more financial and a wider skill base into the business. At the end of 2014, the company launched a new product line the 50cl GO! Bottle aimed at everyday use such as commuters, gym users, sports people and anyone concerned about their health. The aim is to convince consumers to use this product instead of buying expensive bottled water, and thereby reduce the damage to the environment created by single-use plastic bottles. Further new products are planned for the future.