Back to Smart Water
Founder / Operator·Smart Water

Mahesh Lunani

Founder & CEO at Aquasight

Detroit, MI

ML
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Founder of the leading AI-native platform serving the full water lifecycle, from drinking-water plants through distribution to wastewater.

Background

Founder and CEO of Aquasight, a real-time AI and technology platform for the life cycle of water (drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, distribution networks). Aquasight's products help water utilities reduce risk, cut operating costs, and make faster operational decisions through machine learning applied to SCADA and meter telemetry.

Notable deals

  • 2024
    Built Aquasight into one of the leading AI platforms across the entire water lifecycle, partnering with municipal and IOU water utilities across the United States.
  • 2024
    Featured by CIO Bulletin as one of the leading real-time digital AI providers in water infrastructure.

Call-prep brief

Background

Mahesh founded Aquasight to apply modern machine learning to the SCADA and metering data that water utilities already collect. The wedge is operations economics: detecting anomalies, predicting failures, optimizing chemical dosing and pumping schedules in real time.

What he cares about

  • Real-time decisioning at the operator console, not retrospective dashboards.
  • Municipal-utility procurement rhythms (long sales, sticky customers).
  • AI at the edge of utility operations as a path to ARPU expansion in water tech.

Recent moves

  • Continued enterprise rollouts with municipal utilities across drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater.
  • Active speaker at WEFTEC and other water-utility conferences.

Sensitivities

  • Younger company, founder-led. Investor framing should match growth-equity, not late-stage PE.

Questions to ask

  1. Which utility customers have seen the largest operating-cost reductions from Aquasight, and what's the typical payback period?
  2. How does Aquasight's AI compete with or complement what Itron's IntelliFLEX and Xylem's Sensus side are building?
  3. What's the next product category Aquasight expects to expand into?

Outreach draft

Subject
Aquasight growth thesis
Hi Mahesh, I lead infrastructure investing at [Firm]. Aquasight's real-time AI approach to water operations is among the most differentiated water-tech stories in our pipeline, and we'd value a conversation about your scale-up trajectory and capital strategy. Would 30 minutes work in the next month? Best regards, [Your name] [Your firm]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidenceName + firm2 public sourcesVerified2026-05-27How the grades work