Spotlight on Israeli Innovation: What exactly is a TaKaDu?

In my last posting I blogged about lunch with George Gilder, who in his most recent book The Israel Test, wrote something very relevant to this blog posting:

“Science and technology are climbing a ladder from the experimental morass of physics and chemistry into the abstract domains of excellence in algorithms, with Israel ready to play a role comparable to its role in the era’s other computational domains, where it stands second only to the United States.”

TaKaDu, an Israeli company that’s developed an algorithm-based system for monitoring water network infrastructures, embodies exactly the role Gilder envisions. They employ computational solutions to a real world problem by leveraging sophisticated mathematical and statistical analytics.

Using little more than raw data from network sensors, meters and valves, the advanced research team at TaKaDu has developed a remote SaaS solution that can detect water network anomalies like leaks, bursts and other irregularities that were previously undetectable (in some cases for months, or even years). TaKaDu does this without the need for any new equipment (i.e. sensors, meters, etc.), or software installation.

That’s pretty cool, you might say, but so what?

Well, all that water loss adds up. In a world where population growth places increasing stress on diminishing water supplies and creaky distribution networks, what TaKaDu has accomplished really matters.

According to the World Bank, in some countries water loss due to leaks, bursts, faulty meters, theft, etc. diminish the water supply by as much as 60%. Even after factoring in developed countries, these losses, known as Non-Revenue Water (NRW) still account for as much as 30% of worldwide water production. Additionally, due to the energy-intensive nature of water extraction, transmission, treatment, and distribution, that loss of water represents a sizeable loss of energy as well. Again according to the World Bank, it’s conservatively estimated that utilities are losing $14 Billion per year due to NRW. In developing countries, the amount of water lost daily in aging distribution networks would be enough to serve almost 200 million people!

Last year, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a report card on America’s drinking water systems. The grade was an abysmal D-, but that was the good news. The bad news was they estimated the investment needed to bring our national water infrastructure up to a standard commensurate with the demands placed upon it will be a whopping $255 Billion!

Given this staggering bill, it seems incumbent upon the water utilities to do everything they can to mitigate water loss and extend the life of our broken distribution networks as long as possible. As TaKaDu insightfully points out on their website, “water loss reduction is the cheapest way to increase water supply”. When compared to the jaw-dropping expense that overhauling our national water infrastructure will cost, TaKaDu’s pay-as-you-go pricing of $10 per kilometer per month seems like a drop in the bucket (excuse the pun).

The accolades for TaKaDu are piling up, including one which recently caught my attention – getting named as a Technology Pioneer for 2011 by the World Economic Forum. That prompted me to contact the company, and this week I had the pleasure of speaking about TaKaDu with Guy Horowitz, one of their Vice-Presidents. The first question I asked him was “Where does the name TaKaDu come from and what does it mean?” Horowitz assured me that it meant nothing whatsoever and was just a made up word that is easy to pronounce in most languages.

Our discussion continued about the technologies underlying TaKaDu’s software platform, which include Amazon Web Services’ EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) & S3 (Simple Storage Service) provided out of Amazon’s Dublin, Ireland data center. This is the first organization I’ve personally come across that uses the local Seattle company’s cloud offerings.

Horowitz also told me that in its current configuration, TaKaDu can only be used by water utilities. Looking out over the horizon however, their product road map could include versions for oil, gas, and wastewater utilities, and even some large industrial users as well.

He could not provide me with exact figures on customers or revenue, but indicated that both are doubling by the quarter. Given the massive size of the opportunity, I expect this 20-person firm of mathematicians and computer scientists will continue their rapid growth into the foreseeable future.

TaKaDu seems to me a perfect microcosm of Israel itself – small in size, yet tackling huge challenges using nothing more than brainpower & chutzpah. This is yet another great example of Israeli innovation making the world a better place. Check out their video: