Brussels-based Dripl, the developer of smart water dispensers, has raised €4 million in a funding round to expand its smart dispenser beyond the 500 companies already converted in the Benelux, ramp up their production facility in Leuven and launch in more regions across Europe.
The round was led by Abacus Investments, with continued support from Spadel, Faraday Venture Partners and the Meert Family.
“Real behaviour change only happens when the healthy and sustainable option is simply better than the alternatives on every level. This funding round allows us to make healthy refilling the norm worldwide. We’re building for the long term, reshaping how people hydrate at work. That requires partners who share that ambition, which is why we’re proud to partner with Abacus Investments as the lead investor in this round,” says Colin Deblonde, co-founder of Dripl.
In a 2025 European context, Dripl’s €4 million funding round sits alongside a small number of comparable investments in smart hydration and sustainable beverage infrastructure.
Most notably, Amsterdam-based Aquablu raised €7 million to scale its smart water dispensers, expand internationally and further automate its hydration platform, underlining continued interest in technology-led alternatives to bottled water in workplaces and public spaces.
EU-Startups previously covered Dripl in an earlier 2023 article detailing their €2 million funding round.
“Dripl fits perfectly with our philosophy of impact-driven investing,” adds Wim Flo, CEO of Abacus Investments. “Their sugar-free drinks promote healthier hydration, while their dispensers significantly reduce the use of single-use packaging. We’re excited to support Dripl in the next chapter of their journey and proud to join the Refillution.”
Dripl was founded in 2020 with a mission to reshape the beverage industry. Through its smart Refill Points, Dripl offers just water or flavours with functional benefits, such as ginger-lime or raspberry-grapefruit, without added sugar or unnecessary CO₂e emissions.
Designed for workplaces, Dripl’s dispenser combines hydration, sustainability and convenience, offering a zero-waste alternative to traditional bottled soft drinks and water.
The idea behind Dripl was born five years ago, when co-founders Colin and Lucas found themselves standing in front of an old-school vending machine and realised flavoured drinks were still stuck in single-use packaging. Both students at the time, that moment sparked a clear mission: to build a better alternative.
Their first prototypes were assembled in a garage using second-hand Coca-Cola machine parts.
With over 500 customers, including Moore, Cordeel, Visma, and PostNL, Dripl has already helped avoid more than 15 million single-use packages. That’s the equivalent of one disposable package avoided every second of the workday. Dripl’s long-term ambition is to eliminate 1 billion single-use packages and fundamentally reshape how we hydrate at work.
“Over the past few years, we’ve already achieved something special: building a profitable, fast-growing hardware and drinks scale-up that’s helping make healthy, sustainable hydration the norm,” adds Colin. “But the road ahead is still long. Large corporations continue to dominate the market and push single-use, sugary drinks at scale. We’re here to fix that.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/01/from-spare-coca-cola-machine-parts-to-a-e4-million-funding-round-the-journey-of-belgian-startup-dripl/
