Savvy investors are increasingly backing start-ups that seek to capitalise on perceived utility failings. A series of decent exits in the sector are feeding the frenzy.
More than $5 billion of equity capital has been invested into water start-ups since 2002, across more than a thousand separate interventions, according to a new analysis of data compiled by Global Water Intelligence.
A glance at the table below, which shows deals tracked by GWI’s WaterData platform over the course of 2019, shows that capital flows into water are increasingly being directed to those areas where there is a perception that the traditional utility model is failing – whether through indifference, inertia, or indolence.
Money is increasingly being put to work in areas such as advanced customer engagement through intelligent home water monitors, leak detection, prepaid metering and billing software, and point-of-use water filtration devices.
Such interventions frequently target the “last mile” of pipe – i.e. the privately owned infrastructure located beyond the boundary where a utility’s responsibility ends. A widespread feeling that water utilities are largely indifferent to enhancing the customer experience has been compounded by fears over lead, PFAS and other contaminants in water supplies, and this is playing into the hands of start-ups looking to push the next big thing in water.
“There’s a lot of value in the last mile in terms of engaging with the final customer,” observed one market veteran who advised on a sizeable growth funding round in 2019. “When you think about the customer engagement relationship and the lack of trust in utilities, people don’t feel protected,” he told GWI.
Point-of-use filtration solutions are of particular interest, given that they use established technology, and are therefore instantly marketable to consumers suspicious of the quality of their piped water. Early consideration is often given to the exit strategy here, too, given the pace at which private equity-backed behemoths such as Culligan and Waterlogic are buying up smaller point-of-use players with cutting-edge technologies to promote alongside their own.
A flurry of high-profile exits is always useful in terms of catalysing further flows into a sector, and 2019’s crop in water was particularly notable. While XPV returned capital to its LPs by injecting two of its wastewater protégés into a new investment platform co-financed by KKR, Innovyze acquired AI leader Emagin as a bolt-on for its infrastructure data analytics platform, while DuPont bought out membrane-aerated biofilm reactor specialist OxyMem.
Indeed corporate venture arms are getting involved in water to a greater extent than ever before, with Suez, Sumitomo, Uponor, Pentair, Kurita, Marubeni, and Saudi Aramco all using their clout to back a variety of water technologies last year.
The most spectacular exit of all must, however, be Culligan’s acquisition of AquaVenture, the desalination and point-of-use firm backed by Doug Brown after he exited his previous investment, Ionics, in 2004. Together with outfits including the Virgin Green Fund and Element Partners, Brown ploughed serious money into Seven Seas Water before merging it with point-of-use firm Quench in 2014. Element Partners’ hefty stake in the combined business should net it a payout in the hundreds of millions of dollars, while Brown himself looks to be in line to take home $48 million.
With returns like these on offer for patient investors, it is no surprise that water continues to attract a healthy flow of capital, from individuals right through to private equity giants.
SELECTED SEED/VENTURE/GROWTH CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN WATER (2019)
CompanyCountryLine of businessInvestor/sInvestment Cerahelix, Inc. a USA Small-pore ceramic membranes Undisclosed $0.14m TAPP Water Spain Point-of-use water filtration Bluewater/Yabeo €1.8m CityTaps France Prepaid water meters/billing software Global Innovation Fund €2.2m De.mem Limited b Singapore EPC for decentralised treatment plants Pathfinder AM/Perennial Value Management/Others A$12m Infinite Cooling Inc. USA Water capture in thermal power plants Material Impact/Others $4m Cambrian Innovation, Inc. USA Distributed wastewater treatment Spring Lane Capital $17.2m Conservation Labs USA Point-of-use water meter and smart app IrishAngels/Amazon Alexa Fund/Serra Ventures/Mountain State Capital/Innovation Works $1.7m CycloPure, Inc. b USA Adsorption of micropollutants from water Dr. Irwin Jacobs $7.5m Industrial Phycology UK Nutrient removal from water using algae MEIF Early Stage Fund/University of Bristol Enterprise Fund £0.7m Calix Limited Australia MgO suspension for wastewater treatment Various A$12.9m Kibosh UK Rapid repair kits for water pipe leaks Par Equity £0.8m WEGoT Utility Solutions India Smart sensors and water usage analysis GoFrugal/Shyam Sekhar/Brigade Enterprises $2m Fluence Corporation Australia Decentralised water treatment Various A$38.3m Envirosuite Limited Australia Odour treatment Undisclosed A$10m Ostara Nutrient Recovery c Canada Nutrient recovery from wastewater Wheatsheaf Group Limited/VantagePoint Capital Partners $5m Inflowmatix UK Water network data analytics Suez Ventures £2.8m Diamidex (C4Hydro) France Rapid detection of legionella in water Rugby Angels/SATT Sud-Est/Dr Farid Mersali €2m Fonto de Vivo France Water purifiers for humanitarian aid Litto Invest SCR/Crédit Agricole Atlantique Vendée - Soil Scout Finland Wireless moisture sensors Husqvarna Group - Fractal Engenharia Brazil Water management through big data EDP Ventures Brasil/Criatec 3 Fund (INSEED Investimentos) BRL4.5m Plutoshift (f/k/a Pluto AI) USA Proactive performance monitoring using AI Fall Line Capital/Unshackled Ventures/Individuals $8m PowerTech Water USA Capacitive coagulation Mazarine Ventures/Bluegrass Angels/Others $1.5m 120WaterAudit USA Cloud-based water software platform HG Ventures/Allos Ventures/Greenhouse Capital $7m Envirosuite Limited Australia Odour treatment ZZL Pty. Ltd. A$2m Sourcewater, Inc. USA Oilfield water intelligence Bison Technologies/Marubeni Corporation $7.2m Modern Water plc UK Forward osmosis desalination Various £0.14m Aquacycl USA Treatment of high-strength wastewater The Roddenberry Foundation/Others $4m CropX USA SaaS for precision irrigation Sumitomo Corporation/Armada Investments/TaL Capital $10m Shayp Belgium Leak detection using IoT technology SRIB/Triodos Bank €0.45m Gradiant Corporation USA Industrial wastewater treatment Shenzhen Yimeng/Shenzhen Songhe - Aclarity, LLC USA Electromechanical water purification Maroon Venture/Springfield Venture Fund/Alchemy Group $1m Puraffinity UK Adsorbent media for PFAS removal Kindred Capital/HG Ventures/Investiere.ch £2.8m Aquvio India High-recovery reverse osmosis Technology Development Board - Weenat France Real-time water savings in precision ag FAMM/Litto Invest/Unexo/Atlantique Vendée Innovation €2m Hero Labs UK Home leak detection using AI algorithms Earthworm Group/Others £2.5m Mascara France Solar-powered desalination CCD/GO Capital/WiSEED/Famae Impact/Gaia Impact Fund €2.2m Ziptility USA Digital mapping for buried infrastructure Indiana University Philanthropic Venture Fund $0.25m Noveda Technologies, Inc. USA Cloud-based real-time water management ID Global Corporation - Typhon Treatment Systems UK UV LED water treatment Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures $5m Metron-Farnier USA
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