Axine Water Technologies, developers of a low-cost, chemical-free solution for treating high concentrations of problematic, toxic organics, ammonia, and other pollutants in industrial wastewater, today announced it has closed a $5.6 million Series A financing round. The round saw new California-based investor, The Roda Group, join existing investors, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and BDC Venture Capital.

'This important infusion of capital ensures our continued rapid progress towards the commercialization of our 'best-in-breed' wastewater treatment technology,' said Jonathan Rhone, President & CEO of Axine. 'Since our initial funding in late 2012, we have successfully completed performance testing on customer wastewaters using a 10 times scale-up of our proprietary electrolytic oxidation cell validating high efficacy treatment at low cost and low energy consumption without using chemicals. We're now focused on completing final cell scale-up and system integration to prepare for delivery of field pilot units to customer sites early next year.'

Over the past 12 months, Axine has worked closely with industry leaders in oil & gas, refining, waste management, and chemical processing to verify and benchmark the capability of its technology in treating the most difficult wastewaters at a cost of up to five times lower than incumbent solutions. This enables customers to reduce chronic production bottlenecks, lower operating costs, avoid regulatory penalties, and enable wastewater to be treated and reused on-site to offset the rising cost of fresh water.

'Water is an increasingly strategic issue for the oil & gas industry due to rising costs, requirements for water reuse, and more stringent discharge standards,' confirmed Jean-Michel Gires, former President & CEO of Total E&P Canada and now Venture Partner with Chrysalix EVC. 'Axine offers a unique and disruptive solution that addresses significant challenges throughout the oil and gas value chain - from oil sands SAGD to refinery effluent - offering exactly the type of breakthrough innovation I believe this industry needs to realize the true energy opportunity, while preserving the environment in the process.'

Added new investor and Principal at The Roda Group, Marty Reed, 'Waste treatment and water reuse are massive global problems and top investment priorities for Roda. Axine represents the kind of breakthrough technology we're looking for as it stands to solve significant issues across a wide range of water-intensive industries. We like the team, the technology, and the potential for a 'big win' from an environmental, commercial, and investment standpoint.'

Axine's milestone Series A round marks the largest water & wastewater Series A financing in North America in the past year and one of the largest internationally in the last two years.

'From its early days we believed Axine had the potential to establish a new standard in wastewater treatment,' added Tony Van Bommel, Senior Managing Partner of the BDC Venture Capital Energy/Cleantech Fund. 'Axine is an example of a 'best-in-class' Canadian technology that is a global leader addressing an extremely large global market.'

About Axine Water Technologies

Axine has developed a low-cost, chemical-free solution for treating high concentrations of problematic, toxic organics, ammonia, and other pollutants in industrial wastewater solving a multi-billion dollar problem for large companies in a wide range of industries. Its energy-efficient, scalable system treats recalcitrant and non-biodegradable organics, ammonia, and some inorganics (up to 10,000 mg/L COD) at up to five times lower cost than conventional chemical or biological solutions. And due to its compact, modular design, it is designed to seamlessly 'plug into' existing treatment plants, targeting specific pain points without disruption to current processes. This means for the first time, oil & gas, refining, chemical production, and other heavy industries can avoid the production bottlenecks, high treatment and disposal costs, water reuse limitations, and difficulties meeting increasingly tougher regulations that have plagued them for decades. For more information, please visit www.axinewater.com.