India, March 23 -- For many urban dwellers in India, access to safe drinking water remains a persistent challenge. While high-end water purifiers are too expensive for many, plastic water cans - often the go-to alternative - pose serious health risks due to contamination by microplastics and poor hygiene standards. This dilemma was all too familiar to Vijender Reddy Muthyala and Manas Ranjan Hota, two flatmates in Bengaluru who found themselves struggling with the unreliable quality of bottled water.

What began as a simple problem for them soon became the foundation of DrinkPrime, a smart, subscription-based water utility brand. Instead of making users buy expensive purifiers or rely on unhealthy bottled water, DrinkPrime introduced an I...