Benedikt grew up surrounded by water so clean you could drink straight from the source. Lakes and rivers flowed freely, connecting everything like a vascular system. Then he left home and discovered how rare that abundance truly is. In the UK, 75% of rivers are now unsafe to swim in. Globally, 3.5 million deaths are linked to poor water quality every year. Two billion people still lack access to clean water.

The problem runs deeper than scarcity. Water utilities worldwide operate nearly blind, relying on slow sampling methods that leave dangerous gaps between quality tests. Without real-time data, operators cannot treat water effectively, cannot build circular systems, and cannot prevent contamination before it reaches communities.

Benedikt\'s team at Lir Labs initially developed a breakthrough sensor for detecting asbestos fibers in water - a real-time solution to a largely ignored contamination risk. The technical achievement was clear, but there was an adoption barrier. The effects of asbestos contamination are not immediate, the science is debated, and the regulatory momentum breaks down. The lesson landed hard: even urgent problems get ignored when the systems aren’t in place to act upon them.

Rather than abandoning the challenge, Benedikt and his co-founders pivoted to where the need was undeniable. Wastewater treatment became their new entry point - a sector where continuous monitoring isn\'t optional. Their innovative AI-powered optical sensor does what conventional turbidity meters cannot: it detects, classifies, and tracks individual particles in real time. Microplastics, blue-green algae, parasites like Cryptosporidium - threats that traditional methods miss entirely. The system combines automated sampling, optical microscopy, and machine learning to deliver laboratory-grade analysis in the field.

Lir Labs is already gaining traction with their initial prototype - securing six letters of intent from wastewater treatment partners in the UK, Spain and Canada where their sensors will monitor toxic algae blooms this year.

With this initial success Benedikt and the team at Lir Labs are already considering scale-up. Their platform can adapt across water contexts - from drinking water networks to industrial wastewater to environmental monitoring of surface water bodies. With a simple software update, it can detect asbestos or cyanobacteria or whatever the next threat turns out to be.

Their technology is built not for extraction but for circularity, designed to give water systems the intelligence they need to protect both people and ecosystems. In the right hands it has the potential to tackle everything that current systems still avoid.

SHIFTERS 100

Shining a light on the young people and ideas changing our world.

Benedikt Huber

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Benedikt's story

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Watch Benedikt's Podcast Episode

Shining a light on the young people
and ideas changing our world.

Watch Benedikt's
Podcast Episode