Israel's Water Ninja
Summary
Over the past five years, venture capital firms and companies including 3M and ABB have invested more than $20 million in TaKaDu, and its software has been adopted by 14 other utilities in cities from Campo Grande, Brazil, to Bilbao, Spain. Inside, the offices have the obligatory signifiers of the tech startup: minimalist couches and bean bag chairs, walls painted primary colors, and an open kitchen with a large picnic table for meetings and meals. Over eight years he learned to develop military drone operating systems and software to automatically identify key visual information in satellite images, such as tanks, missiles, and other targets. “I can find out anywhere if my meters are accurate, my water quality is clean, my pressure is good, my flow is normal, my pumps are working properly, my infrastructure is humming … all these layers are integrated online.” Six years after founding TaKaDu, Peleg has 35 employees and offers utilities a cloud-enabled service that presents the full gamut of information about the network’s operations. Like for $9.99, it’s all-you-can-eat water.” Last July, as California suffered through a crippling drought that would claim 200,000 acres of crops, a pipe broke under Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and released 20 million gallons of water.