After witnessing the impacts of water pollution during a trip to Mumbai at 14, Diana Virgovicova decided to dedicate her life to finding a solution. She immediately began teaching herself quantum chemistry and, at 17, modelled a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water when exposed to sunlight.
With her sights set on commercializing her idea, she left her native Slovakia to pursue computer engineering at the University of Toronto on a Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarship, launching her startup Xatoms in 2023. Xatoms uses quantum computing and AI to discover photocatalysts – materials that use sunlight to kickstart a chemical reaction that degrades pollutants. While most existing photocatalysts require ultraviolet radiation (produced by expensive reactors), Xatoms identifies molecules that only require sunlight.
The company is now developing an industrial water-treatment powder that can eliminate viruses, pesticides, metals and bacteria and a portable water filter for consumer use anywhere in the world where clean water is not available, including in Indigenous communities in Canada.
“I knew I wanted to build a material discovery company in the water and quantum tech spaces, so I chose U of T because it’s one of the best research-based universities in the world when it comes to entrepreneurship,” Virgovicova says.
Xatoms, which recently raised $3 million from funders including Quebec’s Quantacet, European fund Genesis Ventures and BDC Thrive Lab, has received support from the BRIDGE accelerator program at UTSC, University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST), SpinUp (U of T’s first wet lab incubator at University of Toronto Mississauga) and the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management.
Virgovicova and her company’s growing list of accolades includes the 2024 Desjardins Startup Prize (early stage) and being a historic winner at Startupfest, winning in three categories and taking home $500K. Xatoms was selected for the NEXT 36 entrepreneurship program, the 776 Climate Fellowship (backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian) and a Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which she received from Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria. Finally, Virgovicova and her co-founders were listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 North America in 2025, being the youngest in their category.
She sees water pollution as an equity issue as much as a health problem. “We want to see the number of people who lack access to clean drinking water to be reduced, and to see fewer women and girls investing their time – up to eight hours [a day] in some cases – to bring home a single container of water,” Virgovicova says.
