Our Story

I'm Karim Ali, 24, an engineer and graduate of ESIEE Paris. It took me four years, eleven prototypes and my entire student savings to turn an everyday annoyance most people just accept into the most reasonable solution: a portable pressurised shower, 100% mechanical, with zero electronics.

It started in 2021. I was working as a technician in a bike workshop: no water point to wash off the mud, and sprayers too bulky for hard-to-reach areas.

Then I realised the problem followed me everywhere: poorly equipped restrooms, filthy or out-of-order motorway service stations, sand from the beach before getting back in the car, and no way to set up real water hygiene at home when you rent and the toilet is built into a wall. With my mum, it had become a running joke: "I'm going to end up building us a pocket tap."

I knew I was onto something the day people kept replying "that must already exist" when I described it. And it didn't.

August 2022. I came out of two years of intensive prep school completely drained, with one need: to make something with my hands.

At ESIEE, everyone was talking about AI and drones. What fascinated me were simple objects: a pen, a lighter, a plaster. The ones you no longer even notice because they've become obvious, even though they changed an everyday gesture.

I couldn't model in CAD or even run a 3D printer. I went ahead anyway: bought a printer for €150, grabbed a garden sprayer, and started printing. My flat smelled like popcorn. When the first jet came out, I was almost moved, except the prototype cracked and leaked everywhere with every use.

I delegated too fast at first, and it backfired, so I did what I should have done from the start: I taught myself SolidWorks and modelled every part by hand.

Then came almost a year of failed prototypes. I was trying to fit every possible idea in, without understanding what the complexity would cost the product.

2024, ESIEE's Project Day. The jury was chaired by Éric Larchevêque, co-founder of Ledger. I showed up with a still-rough prototype and fully expected to be torn apart: not a shred of electronics, in front of a tech figure like him.

I gave him my demo. He looked at me, held out his hand, and told me: "Congratulations, now go and industrialise it."

Until then, PORTALO had mostly met polite doubt, often from people who were never its target. That day, someone with real authority and experience looked at it and saw what it could become. I also came away with 2nd place in the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Award and, more importantly, the first real conviction that this could become a product.

3D printing was perfect for proving the concept, but it couldn't make a real product. I needed industrial tooling and, above all, a manufacturing partner willing to take a 100% mechanical, battery-free design seriously.

I went looking for that partner the hard way, at the industry's largest trade fair. On the very last day, I found a team that was a good fit for the project. My makeshift retraction system was too complex to produce cleanly, so we started over. I supervised everything and developed the solution myself, while the factory adapted it to its machines and production processes.

Then came a year of iterations, until the breakthrough: instead of adding external compartments, I simply stored the hose inside the water reservoir.

The result is the PORTALO as it is today: 100% mechanical, zero battery, a magnetic swivel head, a three-position nozzle, and a manual pump like the one on a bike. No longer a student prototype, but a product built to be manufactured.

To enter Alibaba’s global CoCreate Pitch competition in London, I needed a patent application. Rather than wait until I could afford one, I drafted a provisional patent myself to lock in an official date, and sent my application at the very last minute.

I pitched in London in front of a jury including Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor, Ledger co-founder Éric Larchevêque, Dragons' Den investor Sara Davies and entrepreneur Rio Ferdinand.

Selected from thousands of projects worldwide, PORTALO received the competition’s $20,000 CoCreate Award. Franceinfo later covered the win as an example of French "low-tech" innovation.

And the man who first shook my hand at ESIEE a year earlier, Éric Larchevêque, was sitting on that jury. A circle, almost. Something told me it wasn't closed yet.

The day after graduating from ESIEE, I flew out to spend a full month with my manufacturing partner, supervising production and quality control, just in time to have the first units ready for the Concours Lépine, France’s historic inventors’ competition. 

PORTALO came away with the Silver Medal.

But beyond the medal, the strongest validation came from the people who actually bought it. All 300 units I'd brought sold within days, and then the feedback started coming back from the field. Customers took PORTALO hiking and into the mountains. They used it to rinse muddy bikes and outdoor equipment, clean their children’s hands and maintain their hygiene while travelling. The product I had designed around my own frustrations was becoming part of other people’s routines.

Four years ago, PORTALO was a leaking prototype built in my bedroom. Today, the design is final and the first production run is built.

In September 2026, PORTALO launched on Kickstarter. More than 1,000 backers joined us and funded the project far beyond its goal.

Our backers' units ship this winter, and pre-orders on this website ship from January 2027.

The first chapter was about building the product.

The next one is about getting it into the hands of travellers, hikers, riders, parents and anyone who refuses to give up real water hygiene when facilities disappear.