Detroit, MI – Oct 2, 2025 – The newly established water tech charity held back-to-back events in the state today to jumpstart water tech innovators and potential investors. The organization celebrated the official opening of its first U.S. headquarters at the Urban Tech Xchange (UTX) hub in Detroit, marking a major milestone.
The launch follows a multi-day trade mission across Michigan that brought twelve water-tech entrepreneurs to engage with students, researchers, and business leaders, including a stop at the University of Michigan-Flint, to encourage engineering students to attempt water tech businesses of their own.
Through an engagement session organized in collaboration with the University of Michigan-Flint’s College of Innovation and Technology, entrepreneurs were invited to share insights on launching water-focused startups and to encourage student-led innovation in the sector. The engagement session highlighted the growing intersection of academic research and entrepreneurial opportunity in water sustainability.
“Establishing our U.S. headquarters in Detroit is a bold step toward building a thriving water-tech community in Michigan,” said Soula Chronopoulos, President of AquaAction. “We’re here to empower the next wave of innovators who will shape the future of freshwater sustainability, and Michigan is the perfect launchpad for that mission.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place during the Make It in Michigan Event and Tradeshow, where AquaAction showcased its impact and extended a call for collaboration to Michigan’s innovation and water stewardship community.
“The water tech innovation that AquaAction is sparking with a new generation of entrepreneurs is precisely the kind of catalytic collaboration we first envisioned for the UTX. Our team at Bedrock is thrilled to be working with them to grow an ecosystem of innovators and scale them into successful industry disruptors.” —Kevin Mull, Senior Director for the Office of Urban Strategy and Innovation, Bedrock
With this new base in Detroit, AquaAction is positioning itself as a catalyst for water-tech innovation, connecting local talent, academic institutions, and industry leaders to solve pressing freshwater issues. The organization’s flagship initiative – the AquaHacking Binational Program – is set to launch in the Spring of 2026, bringing together teams from both the U.S. and Canada to develop market-ready solutions for water sustainability.
Now in its 10th year and 16th edition, AquaHacking is a 10-month ideation and acceleration program, through which participants gain access to mentorship, tools, and resources to transform innovative ideas into impactful startups that will benefit the environment, economy, and communities on both sides of the border.
The organization is actively seeking corporate sponsors and strategic partners to support the upcoming AquaHacking Binational 2026 Program and help scale its mission across the Midwest. For partnership inquiries or to learn more about the program, please visit www.aquaaction.org.
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Quick Facts
- AquaAction’s Impact since 2016:
- 100+ water tech companies
- $200M+ in annual revenues
- $65M+ capital raised
- 400+ green jobs created
- Over 3,000 participants engaged
- Over 95B litres (25B gallons) of water saved and the equivalent of over 85,000 trees in carbon avoided
- The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region is home to 110 million people. It contains 21% of the world’s and 95% of North America’s surface fresh water supply and has a ground water supply the volume of Lake Michigan.
- The region accounts for more than 50% of all U.S./Canadian bilateral border trade and sees over 200 million tons of cargo shipped annually. If it were its own country, it would have a GDP of US$8 trillion, making it the third biggest economy in the world.
- The 2026 AquaHacking Binational Great Lakes and St. Lawrence program builds on the success of AquaAction’s first-ever binational Great Lakes AquaHacking program with Northwestern Michigan College in 2023-20234 which brought together over 200 water tech innovators from across the U.S. and Canada.
- The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin faces mounting threats:
- Toxic PFAS contamination continues to infiltrate waterways, outpacing current filtration systems and raising alarms about long-term health effects.
- Nutrient runoff, in the form of phosphorus from agriculture and urban areas, is fueling harmful algal blooms that degrade water quality and damage aquatic ecosystems, most notably in Lake Erie.
- The spread of invasive species is destabilizing food production systems and threatening biodiversity across multiple lakes.
- Extreme weather is disrupting precipitation patterns, intensifying lake-level fluctuations, increasing shoreline erosion, and stressing aging infrastructure.
- Urban and industrial expansion contributes to chemical runoff and challenges cities already struggling to modernize outdated wastewater systems.
About AquaAction
AquaAction is a charity registered in both the United States and Canada that is building a water-secure future through innovation, education, and collaboration. We support aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs to launch and scale water technology solutions to tackle the increasing economic, environmental and water security challenges we face. AquaAction works across sectors connecting innovators, policymakers, communities, and industries to empower the next generation of water stewards. We are a growing community of changemakers who are building the freshwater economy, one solution at a time.