BIV Monthly Update XXXVII
Another busy month, with good news on the announcement of Aclarity’s Series A, an excellent WEFTEC, a whistlestop trip to London & Dublin, a visit from my parents, and if my review of my calendar is anything to go by, not a lot of downtime.
It’s a huge pleasure to welcome Steve Kloos to the Burnt Island. Steve has been a friend and supporter since we met in 2015, right at the beginning of my time with Imagine H2O. In his short time with us, he has already proved what an asset he will be. Christine, Marissa and Jennie and I are all delighted to have him on the team.
The portfolio is in good health as we head towards 2024, and we anticipate a busy last two months of the year. As always, do reach out if you think you can be of help to (or use the services of) the Burnt Islanders. We appreciate it.
BIV Monthly Update – November 9th, 2023
“The six inches in front of your face” Coach Tony D’Amato, Any Given Sunday
Highlights
Welcoming Steve Kloos to the Burnt Island. He is one of the best water professionals and investors in the world, and will be a huge asset to our work. He has hit the ground running, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store. Our first full team day together after WEFTEC was exciting.
Big congratulations to Aclarity on the announcement of their $16m Series A. Julie and the team are doing a great job, and it’s an exciting couple of years ahead. We also have another term sheet signed for one of our larger holdings.
So nice to have my parents in town for their second (bananas) Brooklyn Halloween. We trailed after a small ninja who was sporting a Daunt Books tote (iykyk) to hold his treats. He then promptly fell asleep in a pizza restaurant. A real art week, with Barkley L. Hendricks at the Frick Madison and the Manet/Degas at the Met the highlights.
November Asks
Sign up here to attend forthcoming BIV Sessions.
Point the smartest people you know to the BIV Jobs Board or talent network.
BIV Portfolio Updates
SewerAI – Continue to post record sales months, and poised for a strong finish to the year.
Shower Stream – First units being installed in Extended Stay America, with 5 more hotels confirmed. Some interesting pre-emptive interest in their Series A.
Spout – Just under 2,000 pre-orders complete ($1m in committed revenue) in 4 months. A great effort from Tyler and Reuben.
SwiftComply – Another record sales quarter. Good focus on onboarding new team members to accelerate growth and product development.
Ziptility – Tyler has crafted a really excellent argument ahead of their next round. Made me excited all over again. Amazing effort from the team to regain sales momentum going into 2024.
ZwitterCo – Have completed their first sales of their plug-and-play RO module, which is a potential game changer in the global membrane market. TRL 0 to first sale in less than 10 months.
2S Water – Deployed 4 units this month, 5 total currently operating in the field. A major deployment to come this month.
Aclarity – $16m oversubscribed Series A complete. Their Octa unit completed factory acceptance. Will be completing the first scale PFAS destruction installation before year end.
Aquafortus – Progressing towards the full start-up of the pilot in the next two weeks.
Beagle Services - 150% QoQ growth of Watchdog, the ARR product. Promising.
CivilGrid – Important product development progress, towards the overall goal of making their platform the customer’s single place for utility data acquisition.
Daupler – Moving towards their year-end ARR goal. Positioning for their next round.
Floodbase – Good traction on a couple of big announcements this month, including their Ag Guard partnership. Revenues continue to build.
Irrigreen – Have sold 985 systems this year (+114%), launched their ecommerce site in Q3 (sold 91 systems). Good product progress. In great health.
LAIIER – Matt is feeling the product/market fit, and is closing in on $2m in bookings for delivery in 2024 with some enormous customers. Open to connections prior to the next round.
NLine Energy – In a very strong position going into 2023. Set up excellently commercially.
Work with the Burnt Islanders
All open roles with the Burnt Islanders are advertised through the BIV Jobs Board which is accessible here.
Company Pipeline
Overall Pipeline: 798 (+57)
More good progress on the establishment of our process. Christine and Jennie doing excellently. We are circling a number of initial opportunities.
Team
Welcome Steve!
Excellent team offsite at and after WEFTEC. A fascinating learning curve as we’re getting towards being fully-staffed as a team, and so fun to see the pieces falling into place.
BIV Insight/Visibility
We wrote this piece for Impact Assets and Confluence Philanthropy making the case for water investment. It was fun to look at the argument in a slightly different way.
A pleasure to host the 2023 Digital Derby at Aquatech in Amsterdam, and to do a fireside chat on the latest in water investment.
If you'd like to hear more about upcoming BIV events, please add events@burntislandventures.com to your address book.
We’re Reading/Listening/Watching
WWF released their report “High Cost of Cheap Water”, identifying 60% of global GDP ($58 trillion) at stake from water-related impacts.
Biden’s $8 billion quest to solve America’s groundwater crisis from Fast Company. Promising to see some much overdue attention in the space.
Natural disasters totaled $1 billion in losses, the highest recorded in US history and yet another reminder that climate change is water change.
Developing high performers from Molly Graham. Thoughtful approach on making those who sing sing louder.
The Startup Solution with Heidi Roizen - Great view on social media strategy, from the subject of an amazing HBS case.
