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You are reading Entrepreneur Middle East, the international franchise publication of Entrepreneur Media.
This article is part of an ongoing series covering startups that have become part of the project Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) Accelerator Program.
Resilience, they say, almost always ensures entrepreneurial success. However, while most of us associate this trait with people who are resilient and disciplined, Lebanon-based tech startup Mruna offers a solution that can create resilience on a larger scale — cities, to be precise. elasticity. In essence, urban resilience simply refers to the ability of any given urban system to sustainably continue to function despite external shocks and stresses. That would explain why the startup is named after a loose transliteration of the Arabic word for “resilience.” “Our mission is to develop and implement solutions that bear our namesake,” said Mruna co-founder Ziad Hussami. “Technological innovations abound; however, it is how we leverage them that matters most. Many traditional companies are ultimately leveraging technology to run their businesses more efficiently. We are using technology to exploit potential opportunities in the built environment and shake up traditional thinking.”
Launched in 2019, Mruna offers a variety of services catering to urban resilience, and the Beirut-based startup now has branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Its services include environmental assessments during project design and construction, data development and decision-making spatial analysis tools using remote sensing and geographic information systems, and the development of environmental management plans required for construction regulatory approvals.
However, Mruna’s most important product is BiomWeb, a nature-based decentralized wastewater treatment system. With the design concept of “no waste in nature”, BiomWeb can also minimize maintenance and operating costs. “The solution is simple and elegant: it treats wastewater through a series of tanks that mimic aquatic habitats found in nature,” Husami explains. “It also doesn’t require added chemicals, sludge removal, or major infrastructure investments. BiomWeb looks like a bouquet of flowers and reuses treated wastewater for irrigation. Green thumbs, rejoice!”
The concept of urban resilience is now supported by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), a United Nations program dedicated to sustainable urban development. In fact, the Center for Urban Resilience (UN-Habitat’s technical partner for urban resilience) describes it as “the starting point for a sustainable urban future.” But like many urban resilience strategies, responsibility for wastewater treatment has traditionally fallen on governments or the public sector. However, Mruna is on a mission to change that.“It is clear that the world’s future demand for water will not be met unless there is a radical change in water management,” Husami said. “Public funding sources alone will not be sufficient to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. [generated on-site at traditional wastewater treatment plants]. The international development community has identified the private sector as a source of additional investment in sustainable development. However, private financing for the water industry has been tepid. BiomWeb offers a solution to enlist private sector support to complement public sector deficiencies. “
Shaped like a bouquet of flowers, Mruna’s BiomWeb solution treats wastewater on-site through a series of tanks that mimic natural aquatic habitats.Source: Mruna
Beyond the public-private debate, however, BiomWeb is also working to address another obstacle: the environmental problems posed by centralized wastewater treatment plants. Hussami added: “Our solution enables technological innovation and business model innovation, aiming to decentralize wastewater treatment in the same way that Solar City, the organization founded by Elon Musk that provides residential and commercial solar energy, decentralizes power generation. Now, for many years, centralized systems have been the most common method of treating wastewater, even in the most developed urban ecosystems. But one of its many side effects is that it adds a sizable carbon footprint. This has led to decentralized wastewater treatment gaining support from organizations such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the EPA, decentralized plants can promote environmental protection and conservation, as well as protect public health, among the many reasons the entity considers it “a smart solution.”
Mruna seems to have adopted this philosophy as well. “The goal of our project is not to sell the system at a high upfront capital cost, which would be too expensive for most potential customers, but to act as a service provider and charge customers for on-site water reuse,” Hussami explains. “This will result in small facilities being dispersed across the country and allow independent, locally maintained facilities to scale effectively through a network of partners and small and medium enterprise (SME) sales channels. Complemented by the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), owners Systems can be monitored and controlled remotely using smartphones. Our solutions foster a powerful alliance between nature, IoT and SMEs that will disrupt centralized sanitation in the same way that solar and smart grids have done for energy Utilities.」
Related: Startup Spotlight: Brazilian biotech startup Biosolvit taps circular economy technology to expand into UAE
Now, amidst all this technical jargon and environmental knowledge, it is important for the reader to understand how Hussami came up with the concept of BiomWeb in the first place. The co-founder was working as a sustainability consultant a few years ago, and that’s when he first met Aldar, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate company. “At that time, our client Aldar challenged our team to design a sustainable villa,” recalls Husami. “But during the design process, it became clear that to be truly sustainable, especially in a region where we rely heavily on fossil fuels for desalination, we need recycled water infrastructure. But when you work at a corporate consultancy, the timeline is King! Reimagining infrastructure is not in the budget.”
From there, one thing led to another — a journey he describes as falling down “an unexpected rabbit hole” — and Husami experienced a delightful twist of fate. “What might have been just a passing thought in a cubicle in Abu Dhabi led to a chain of events that took me to a refugee camp in Lebanon, to launching a startup, and to opening the doors of a manufacturing facility. Gate, and then full circle back to the UAE, Aldar – we installed our first demo project with him last year!” he said. Today, as a pre-seed-stage startup, Mruna has managed to stay afloat through grants and awards. “Our research and development and investments in manufacturing capabilities are supported by partners, grants and awards such as Japan International Cooperation Agency, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” Husami shared. “As we turn our attention to the UAE and GCC, we bring a team of four: co-founders and employees experienced in system manufacturing and delivery. In the short term, we aim to leverage debt financing to Delivering Projects Get to know our key customers before we partner with investors to rapidly expand across the region.”
Source: Mruna
In Mruna’s move to Dubai, a city Husami describes as “a honeypot for the greatest technology solutions in the world,” MBRIF has played a key role in its success. “There are a lot of accelerator programs in the world – however, many of them seem very concerned with growing as quickly as possible,” Husami points out. “Yes, growth is important, but MBRIF also cares about impact, providing patient and enduring support to nurture organizations that will fundamentally change the industry and have a positive impact on the UAE and the region.”
But even as Hussaimi works his way into the UAE market, he worries that launching a shift in the ecosystem will require him to flex his entrepreneurial muscles. “Most of the time, I push conservative actors to think more creatively,” Husami admits. “To do this, I map budget and resource constraints on behalf of our partners and guide them in developing a high-level strategy that is consistent with all participants. Think about it: If a partnership doesn’t help achieve both parties’ goals, it won’t last. Too long!”
It’s this mindset that may also explain his attitude toward technological progress — a perspective that serves as important parting advice to entrepreneurs reading this article. “Like us, I think many entrepreneurs get stuck in the comfort zone of product innovation when they start a business and put a lot of energy into demonstrating the magic of their technology rather than the value it brings to customers,” Hussami said. “Our success depends on changing perceptions, increasing acceptance, and uncovering the potential value of adopting new strategies. Essentially, it’s not the business model or the technology that resonates most. Our customers teach us what’s real. What matters is not Product specifications…but the extra warm feeling they get when they are given the gift of a flower picked from the garden, made possible through a strategic partnership!”
Related: Startup Spotlight: Sharjah’s Merlin Farm is solving water scarcity and food security issues in the MENA region through aquaponics
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