Atlantis Technologies is a San Diego cleantech startup that has developed proprietary, low-energy, chemical-free water desalination systems for treating industrial wastewater—especially the 1 trillion gallons of salty wastewater created each year by the oil and gas industry ‘s fracking practices. In a presentation last week, Atlantis CEO P.M. Curran said the company is now seeking to raise $475,000 to advance its radial deionization system, which he says uses 75 percent less energy than state-of-the-art technology by General Electric. Curran confidently predicted that Atlantic’s revenue would be higher than its expenditures in 12 months, that the company would hit annual sales of $5 million the following year, and it would get acquired by 2016 for approximately $50 million.
Curran was persuasive enough to win the people’s choice award Thursday night at the Tech Coast Angels‘ Fifth Annual Quick Pitch competition. (More than 500 people attended the event at Qualcomm’s Irwin M. Jacobs Hall.) Seven judges from the Southern California angels group also gave Atlantis Technologies their award for best overall “quick pitch” of the evening.
The judges also issued two other awards. They gave their “best content” award for a presentation by Keith Mullin of Gamer Grub, a local startup that has created snack foods in convenient “Tear N’ Tilt” snack packs for die-hard computer gaming enthusiasts, and best style award to Derek Smith of Tesla Controls, a local startup that has combined wireless mesh networking with cloud computing to help commercial building managers reduce wasted energy.