The water-recycling firm Gradiant became one of the first in the space to be valued at $1 billion. Bajpayee's Gradiant helps industrial businesses get this under control by treating and recycling used water. Gradiant has raised over $400 million from investors to date and counts BMW, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as customers. "If you think about it, ever since the industrial revolution, we've just been taking water from nature," Bajpayee told Insider. Bajpayee added that the company used fewer and, "in some cases," no chemicals in its treatments.

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Persons: Gradiant, Anurag Bajpayee, we've, Bajpayee, MIT spinout, Iris, Extantia, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lindsey Higgins, Higgins Organizations: BMW, Cola, Pfizer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, MIT, Synthesis Locations: Microsoft's, South America