2024-02-01

Sandberg Development growing its incubator with investment in start-up PluvioFlow

Sandberg Development is a family-owned investment company that contributes to growth and social value through active ownership of innovation- and technology-driven companies. Now the Group is expanding its incubator. By investing in the newly started water technology company PluvioFlow, which develops tools for hydrological modelling, Sandberg Development aims to improve urban and resource planning in the event of extreme weather.

Changing precipitation patterns and hydrological cycles, as well as the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, are more common now as a result of climate change. This means hydrological models need to be more precise for better civil protection and emergency response.

PluvioFlow AB is a start-up company based on 30 years of research at the Centre for Geographical Information Systems at Lund University into how water moves in different environments during torrential rain. The process can currently take several weeks, but PluvioFlow’s dynamic new simulation algorithm could significantly reduce the time required and provide more realistic water flow data. A more precise simulation of torrential rains can improve civil protection and emergency response and thus reduce damage. A more realistic tool enables the development of more effective strategies for water resource management.

A trio of researchers – Andreas Persson, Petter Pilesjö and Abdulghani Hasan – are behind the new company, along with LU Holding and Sandberg Development. Sam Sarwat, a mathematician from DHI, will be the company’s first employee and CTO.

Water technology is one of Sandberg Development’s focus areas and through this investment the Group aims to help bring a dynamic new simulation technology to the market sooner.

“Efficient planning and management for recurring extreme weather events and water flows is a very important global challenge. More knowledge about water flows and dynamic hydrological modelling mean that work becomes more preventative, particularly for saving lives, assets and critical social infrastructure. We think that PluvioFlow’s simulation algorithm is of interest to public utilities, insurance and property companies and companies operating in future civil and infrastructure planning,” says Stefan Persson, President and CEO of Sandberg Development.

“Torrential rains are becoming more intense thanks to climate change. More intense rain in greater volumes will be increasingly common even in winter, which further exacerbates the problem, and we have seen this in various places in Sweden over the last three winters. To ensure that the appropriate adaptations are made to address the effects of climate change, more people need to understand how water moves, in cities as well as in the countryside. The necessary climate adaptations are both small- and large-scale, but they will need to be spread out. That’s why we’re creating the conditions for high-resolution modelling using publicly available data, among other information sources. Often down to a square metre,” says Andreas Persson, one of the company’s founders. 

In 2023, Sandberg Development started its own incubator focused on investing in start-up companies and ideas with great potential. The Group’s goal is to continually contribute technological know-how and business development so that the companies can accelerate their growth. PluvioFlow will be Sandberg Development’s second investment in the incubator, following 2023’s investment in Xocchiali and its development of smart eyeglasses.

For more information, contact:
Stefan Persson
President/CEO Sandberg Development
sp@sbdev.com