About Aqvaeris — Founders & Technology

Gianmario Invernizzi is the engineering mind behind Glaciasept™ and Fluxaria™ — and behind four decades of invention across electronic controls, gas valve systems, and UV-C technology. Trained at the Istituto Tecnico Industriale "Antonio Badoni" in Lecco, he co-founded Ineco with his brother Marco in 1980: a startup that became the European leader in wall-mounted boiler control panels, with 200 employees, 13 patents, and over 40% European market share by 1997. When Honeywell acquired Ineco in 1999, Gianmario stayed on for two years — and then left, because he had already invented something new: a motorised gas valve with a stepper motor, wholly unlike anything available at the time. So disruptive was it that he had to machine the first prototypes himself. It became the foundation of Nordgas, and the first of what is now a portfolio of 28 patents.

Glaciasept™ grew from a collaboration with Paolo Moro, who had seen the U-Vir units — UV-C air disinfection devices for occupied spaces, conceived by Gianmario during the second week of Covid — and asked whether the same principle could be applied to ice machines. Gianmario engineered Fluxaria™: a positive air pressure barrier inside the machine. Then Paolo asked a further question: could air and water disinfection be combined in a single UV-C pass? Gianmario solved it. That answer became the defining feature of Glaciasept™, with further patents pending for its next evolution.

At Aqvaeris, Gianmario leads technology development. He describes himself simply: a curious person who always tries to understand how things can work — and how to make the things he develops grow.

Marco Invernizzi built, scaled, and sold a manufacturing company — and then built another one, which he currently runs. In 1980, together with his brother Gianmario, he co-founded Ineco, growing it from a two-person startup into the European leader in wall-mounted boiler control panels: 200 employees, 13 patents, and over 40% European market share by 1997. The company attracted Honeywell's interest, which acquired it in 1999. Marco served as CEO on behalf of the acquirer, fulfilled his contractual obligations, and then left. Managing a large company that was no longer his own was not what he was cut out for.

What followed was a second build. Marco founded Nordgas, expanded into electronics manufacturing, and grew the group across multiple sites and product lines. By 2019 it had adopted Kaizen across all operations and achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification. AET80 — the entity that today manufactures Glaciasept™ — is the operational endpoint of that second venture: ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, with a 4,500m² production facility and an expanded electronics assembly line added in 2022. It is a serious manufacturing operation, owned and run by the same person who conceived it.

At Aqvaeris, Marco runs the operation that turns Gianmario's engineering into a product that ships. Forty years of working together has produced a division of labour so settled it no longer needs to be negotiated — which, for anyone evaluating the solidity of this team, is precisely the point.

Joakim Granfors is a Mechanical Engineer and MBA from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden — one of Europe's leading technical institutions — with over 30 years of senior leadership experience across professional kitchen equipment, R&D, and commercial operations in Europe.

His career spans Managing Director roles at Comenda (Ali Group) and Hoonved — both part of one of the world's largest foodservice equipment conglomerates — where he led organisations through sustained growth, product transformation, and market expansion across multiple European markets. As VP of R&D & Innovation at Angelo Po, he led the integration of IoT and energy optimisation technologies into professional kitchen environments, placing him at the forefront of the next generation of connected, intelligent foodservice equipment.

He currently serves in a senior advisory capacity within the European commercial kitchen equipment industry at a pan-European level.

A recognised figure in the European foodservice equipment industry, Joakim brings the strategic depth, technical credibility, and pan-European network to position Aqvaeris — and the 'ice is food' principle — where it belongs: at the centre of the professional kitchen hygiene conversation.

Paolo Moro has spent over three decades at the commercial frontier of professional ice equipment — leading pan-European sales and marketing for Scotsman, Ice-O-Matic, and Hoshizaki across 20+ markets. When Hoshizaki acquired Brema Group — Europe's number one ice machine manufacturer — Paolo led the negotiating team and subsequently the commercial integration, a role built on deep personal knowledge of the industry's key players across two generations.

It was during this period that he conceived and co-signed the patent for UV-C dual disinfection of both air and water in a single pass — a first in the industry. Rather than launch it as a factory-fitted option available only on new machines, Paolo made a deliberate choice: bring it to market as an aftermarket device, compatible with the vast installed base of commercial ice makers already in operation. That decision became Glaciasept™ and the Fluxaria™ positive air pressure principle — the first technology to create a contamination barrier at the source of ice production, not treat it after the fact.

At Aqvaeris, Paolo leads commercial strategy, channel development, and the ROI framework that positions Glaciasept™ not as a maintenance cost, but as brand protection with a measurable return.

Water. Air.
Protection.

Gianmario

Marco

Joakim

Paolo

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