SAYA Life is raising capital through a SAFE at a valuation cap of $8 million with a 10% discount. This valuation is very reasonable compared to other startups currently raising funding online. The company also has positive revenue and ongoing contracts, which helps to further justify its valuation. Therefore, SAYA Life’s price score is strong.

The global water quality monitoring systems market was valued at $3.8 billion in 2017 with the US accounting for a relatively small proportion of that market. The market is expected to reach $6.7 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 7.3%, although that growth is likely to be more concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region.

If the US government follows through on investing in infrastructure — including replacing water pipes — the water quality market could get more attention. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred more people to work from home, which increases the need for quality water monitoring. That said, the diminutive size of this market casts doubt on SAYA Life’s ability to reach a size sufficient enough to provide high returns for investors. The company’s market score is its lowest across all five metrics due to this limited market size.

SAYA Life’s leadership team is relatively small. The founder, CEO, and most public-facing member is Sanjay Poojary, a graduate of California State University with an MS in computer engineering. Poojary spent about a decade in senior managerial roles with Cisco and Kofax, the former a massive multi-national tech conglomerate selling networking and telecommunications and the latter a far smaller capture software company. Poojary then moved into product and project management roles at Greenwave Systems, a software and services company oriented towards mass adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT). Greenwave represents his most relevant experience with IoT solutions, but Poojary is still a relative newcomer to water submetering and lacks any other experience with startups or notable exits.

Chief Technology Officer Ray Li has an MS in computer science from the New Jersey institute of Technology. Li shares some of Poojary’s experience at Cisco and Greenwave, making it likely that the two met in their previous roles. Li joined SAYA Life in mid-2019. He has two decades of experience in software engineering and architecture, including eight years with Greenwave. Chief Operating Officer Noorali Lakhani has a BSc in electrical engineering and computer science and has a breadth of engineering experience. He spent nearly two decades working with Mindspeed Technologies, which designs, manufactures, and sells semiconductors. 

SAYA Life has little competition and holds a competitive advantage as an all-in-one IoT AI/ML monitoring solution for multi- and single-family spaces. But that advantage isn’t necessarily going to last, as the product isn’t exceedingly defensible. SAYA Life holds patents, which helps, but IoT water monitoring is certainly replicable should competitors choose to step into the space — and there are no barriers to keep them from doing so.

While SAYA Life has had a good performance over time, that comes with a significant caveat. The company has turned $300,000 in previous rounds of funding into $570,000 in revenue. However, SAYA Life saw revenue fall from $251,079 in 2019 to $140,353 in 2020. Ideally those numbers would have gone up, especially as more tenants stayed at home and used more water. Tenants being unable to pay rent — courtesy of the pandemic — could have caused property owners to cut costs wherever possible and be reluctant to invest in further monitoring.

That said, the company has kept its liabilities low as it has deployed its platform to 2,000 properties in all with 70 tenants per property. SAYA Life has contracts with multi-family properties across the US and Los Angeles public organizations as well as big names like Walmart and Hilton.

The SAYA Life team doesn’t have experience working in the water submetering industry, which is a fairly major concern. The team also lacks successful startup veterans. The market is small, which significantly limits SAYA Life’s room to grow. Given the company’s recent decrease in revenue and moderate margins, it may take a long time for investors to enjoy significant returns.

While SAYA Life’s objective of bringing water knowledge to multi-tenant properties is admirable and addresses a tangible problem for businesses and tenants alike, good intentions cannot shield this startup from market concerns. Water submetering is simply not a very big business in the US, where water is cheap and readily accessible and utilities are publicly supported. The industry has lagged behind in adopting the IoT technology now common in thermostats, refrigerators, and other appliances, but that could easily change. A patent is not sufficient differentiation to prevent severe loss of opportunity should a devoted competitor appear in this space.

While investors should note that SAYA Life has done well overall with limited room to grow, they should be careful not to expect too much from a startup with that limitation. And investors should be wary of a business that’s seen revenue drop, even in such extraordinary circumstances as a global pandemic.

While SAYA Life’s growth potential is limited, it is the premier product offering in a space that’s receiving some level of public attention. While SAYA Life is never going to be a massively successful startup, assuming the space remains relatively uncompetitive, it could carve out a comfortable and consistent niche for itself as the leading provider for IoT water monitoring. In that event, patient investors could eventually see annual recurring revenue in the millions.

SAYA Life is providing a “water risk” platform that employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor multi-tenant properties for overuse, leaks, and poor water quality. The platform, accessible to tenants, businesses, and utilities alike, automatically detects and manages problems before they result in damages and health hazards. The startup has made good use of previous funding to generate more than half a million dollars in revenue — though that revenue has dipped, possibly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SAYA Life has secured contracts with some prominent brands and is operating in a space absent of notable competitors. However, the product’s IoT management advantage could certainly be matched or surpassed. While SAYA Life addresses a tangible concern for all parties involved, it does not demonstrate exceptional capacity for growth or dominance of a small market.

As a result, SAYA Life is a Neutral Deal.

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com.

Analysis written by Benjamin Potts.