A new war is brewing over clean water and customer control

“Servicing and maintenance — especially annual maintenance contracts — are the real pain points in the RO (reverse osmosis) purifier ecosystem. That’s where most customers feel the pinch, not during the purchase but long after,” said Satish Meena, co-founder, Datum Intelligence.

Industry executives said customers often pay nearly 40% of the purifier’s original cost every year just for upkeep. In addition, product-level innovation has stagnated.

“There’s practically no real product differentiation in the market today. Everyone uses similar filtration technologies, and pricing can be effectively matched. So hardware alone isn’t a lasting edge,” Meena added.

Now players are racing to reinvent the experience: seamless subscriptions, bundled maintenance, and fewer headaches for users.

Legacy incumbents like Kent RO and Livpure now face fresh heat from Urban Company’s Native, which is scaling rapidly by leveraging its digital-first platform and in-house service stack.

With both Kent and Urban Company heading for an initial public offering (IPO), this shift from product to platform could determine who wins the next phase of growth.
 

How India buys water purifiers

While brand loyalty is being tested as newer models promise less hassle and more predictability, for younger, mobile consumers, the convenience of app-based support and zero-maintenance claims is proving hard to ignore.

“I live alone and didn’t want the hassle of chasing service guys or remembering filter replacements every few months,” said Pranay, a 27-year-old engineer in Delhi who switched from a traditional RO to a bundled service model last year. “With a subscription, they just show up when needed. For Livpure here in Delhi, it costs around ₹449 a month. If you take it for longer, you get discounts too.”

For some, brand loyalty still sticks. “We pay for the AMC, just like we do for the cooler or air conditioner,” said Aradhana, a 48-year-old homemaker in Delhi, adding that her family of four continues to use their years-old Kent RO.

But her 24-year-old son, now working in Bengaluru, has bought a water purifier from Urban Company, “It’s just more convenient. There is one app for pretty much everything. I don’t want to deal with repairs, ownership while also moving,” Rohit said.

Urban Company’s Native ride

Urban Company began pilot-testing RO sales in 2023, gradually expanding it through its app interface and internal technician network. Its purifier brand, Native, now generates ₹300 crore annually, accounting for 26% of the company’s revenue, according to company’s financial report released last week.

Native sells, installs, and maintains its devices end-to-end, bundling servicing as a loop that replaces the traditionally fragmented post-sales model. This shift moves beyond one-time hardware sales and recurring AMC revenue.

The company alsoclaims that its purifiers don’t need servicing for two years, and arecapable of giving an output of 12,000 liters of pure water without requiring a filter change.

In FY25, Urban Company’s hardware revenue jumped nearly fourfold to ₹116 crore, up from ₹28.7 crore in FY24. Nativeclocked ₹155.5 crore worth of total sales (NTV), a 3x jump over last year. Out of that, ₹116 crore was actual revenue earned from customers (revenue from operations).

Despite aggressive expansion, it <a class="backlink" target="_blank" href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/company-results/urban-company-swings-to-profit-ahead-of-ipo-trims-issue-size-amid-market-recalibration-11750229918370.html" data-vars-page-type="story" data-vars-link-type="Manual" data-vars-anchor-text="posted a ₹39.7 crore loss”>posted a ₹39.7 crore loss (adjusted Ebitda), showing it’s still in early-stage investment mode, spending heavily to scale.

Urban Company hasn’t publicly disclosed the exact number of Native RO water purifiers installed; however, it claimed that it had repaired and serviced over 1 million water purifiers (across all brands) as of launch.

Currently, the company services around 60 cities — a relatively small footprint compared to incumbents but one that overlaps heavily with India’s most premium customer base.

Queries sent to Urban Company early Monday did not elicit a response till press time.

Livpure’s early bet on subscriptions

Livpure, one of the largest organised players in the segment, began diversifying its model around 2019. It introduced water-as-a-service bundling filters, servicing, and part replacements into the subscription.

The model has seen growing traction. Today, Livpure has over 4.5 lakh customers across 26 cities and claims to hold 65–70% of the organised subscription market. “What started with 80% of customers choosing one-month plans has now flipped — 57% now prefer long-term subscriptions,” Rakesh Kaul, CEO at Livpure told Mint.

Backed by over 3,000 field engineers across 16,000+ pin codes, the company has also built IP around its IoT stack, enabling real-time filter monitoring and predictive maintenance. In June 2024, Livpure raised ₹233 crore from M&G Investments and is targeting ₹1,000 crore in revenue by FY26.

“There are newer-age brands entering the water purifier space, but this is a very intensive service-led category. It takes years of investment; we’ve built over a decade to reach 800 franchises covering 18,000+ pin codes. So even if new players come in, they’ll largely operate in urban centers, where penetration is about 15–16%. But in Tier 3, Tier 4 towns and rural areas, it drops to 3–4%,” said Kaul.

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Kent and its legacy model

Kent RO, meanwhile, continues to follow the legacy model — a one-year warranty followed by paid service contracts. Kent RO claims a 22% share of the overall RO market. Its devices carry NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) certification from the US–a recognised safety and performance standard for water purifiers—and the company is present in over 600 districts.

“When we sell our product, it comes with a one-year full warranty. We provide free service for four years, customers only need to pay for any part replacements,” Mahesh Gupta, chairman, Kent RO told Mint.

According to a Kent RO report published in January this year, India’s water purifier market grew from ₹6,960 crore in FY2019 to ₹8,860 crore in FY24, at a CAGR of around 4.9%, and is projected to expand further at around 10.1% CAGR to ₹14,350 crore by FY29. Yet, the penetration of electrical RO purifiers in India remains below 8%.

The rise of challengers hasn’t just led to market competition. Urban Company and Kent RO are locked in a legal battle involving patent infringement claims and alleged anti-competitive actions. 

In 2024, Kent RO accused Urban Company’s Native purifiers of violating its RO patents, while Urban Company, in January this year, countered that Kent influenced e-commerce platforms to delist its products without a court order. Both cases are currently pending in the Delhi High Court, according to media reports.

As India’s water purifier market grows more crowded, the battle is no longer just about filters and price tags. It’s about control — of the customer experience, of trust, and of the entire post-sale lifecycle.

“Brand loyalty does exist in this category, but it’s not set in stone. For any new player betting on a service-led model to work, some baseline trust has to already be in place. That brand equity needs to be earned upfront,” said Meena of Datum Intelligence.