BIV Monthly Update XXXVI (3 years!)

Monthly Updates
Written By Tom Ferguson

It’s our third anniversary of sending these, thanks so much for following our journey. We’ve come a long way from where I wrote the first one, at the kitchen table in San Francisco. That kitchen table is now my desk wedged into the corner of our den in New York. So maybe not that far.

A $30m Fund I, a team of 4 (soon to be 5), 2 Venture Partners, an amazing Investment Committee and Advisory Board, 99 LPs and of course 18 Burnt Islanders. As we embark on our fourth year of work, we do so with many more pieces of the puzzle in place than in October 2020. Thank you so much to everyone for their support. 

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 – 1st October 2023

“These people… Where did all these people come from?” Richard, Weekend at Bernie’s

 Highlights

  • My first full NYC Climate Week was a great, if slightly hectic experience. We have to elevate water’s visibility in the overall climate funding world, and between participating in two CGI roundtables, co-hosting an Urban Solutions event with StreetLife Ventures, meeting a lot of old and new (and quite a few digital) friends, we feel like we represented.

  • Hosting the excellent Gary White, co-founder of Water.org and WaterEquity for our largest BIV Session yet. It was very exciting, even more exciting than when his partner Matt Damon answered my question directly at an event at J.P. Morgan six days prior. Email marissa@burntislandventures.com for the recording (of the Session, not Matt’s answer - though it was rather good).

  • Breakfast with Jane Woodward, Mauricia Geissler and Peter Knight. I would go through their resumes but it would take too long. It was a huge pleasure to answer their questions.

  • Confirming our third BIV Partner. It’s really rather exciting. More below under “Team”.

  • Going to the Coco Gauff Final at the US Open with my awesome Partner Christine Boyle, and of course Kiyan starting First Grade - and the advent of our analogue scootering partnership at 8:05 am on weekdays. 

 October Asks

 BIV Portfolio Updates

  • NLine Energy – Sale in Maine (2nd project with same client). Delivered two turbines (MST) - APC Paper and Lonza Pharmaceuticals.

  • SewerAI – New record revenue. New VP of Ops and new Director of CS are onboarded and are already maturing systems.

  • Shower Stream – Current pilot validated savings per room. Approved to roll out technology to 120-room hotel.

  • Spout – Passed 1800 preorders - almost $1m in pre-sales.

  • SwiftComply – On track for 144% increase in billings in 2023. Gearing up to launch new Industrial Pretreatment module.

  • Ziptility – Sales motion in full swing. They really can be the Operating System for small and medium utilities (and much more beyond). 

  • ZwitterCo – Looking good for a major initial sale of their new product line. 

  • 2S Water – Deployed first series of outdoor deploys of the 2S effluent product in Victoria BC.

  • Aclarity – Closing in on a superb strategic to complete the final close. 

  • Aquafortus – Moving towards an LOI which would be a potentially important part of the puzzle for a first deployment. Progressing on the Midland pilot. 

  • Beagle Services - ARR business growing nicely.

  • CivilGrid – Ten demos from a single small conference. Excellent pitch at Climate Week. 

  • Daupler – Good understanding of the financial resources needed for the next stage of growth.

  • Floodbase – Sales accelerating, new sales lead (a Brit!) fitting in well.  

  • Irrigreen – Excellent feedback on the Hamptons deployment through a BIV LP (thank you Michael Donovan). Continuing to build. 

  • LAIIER – Signed as an approved technology with a top four insurer globally. Signed commercial real estate portfolio worth $50B+.

  • 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: 741 (+50)

  • We have ramped up our DD process. Some intriguing possibilities.

  • Significant jump in the overall volume, reflecting the “September Boom” in activity, and also our improved overall team coverage. Excellent data hygiene from Jennie Graham, and zeroing in on our process for new opportunities as a team.  

 Team

  • We will be welcoming our third Partner. This is someone who has been a friend, mentor and guide (a bit like Christine) since 2015. He’s also responsible for a not-inconsiderable amount of the intellectual architecture of what we do, so he should fit right in. We have big plans. More next month, I hope.

 BIV Insight/Visibility

We’re Reading/Listening/Watching

  • The Worth of Water by Gary White and Matt Damon is as good a synopsis of the impact case for water as I have read. They are two very thoughtful, entertaining, dedicated humans who walk us through the relatively simple and compelling case for why their work matters so much. Anyone who thinks Damon did that crypto superbowl ad for anything other than a giant donation to Water.org is an idiot.

  • Super Founders by Ali Tamaseb is a useful journey through a huge dataset, to help us understand where big companies are likely to come from. 

  • The Morgan Housel Podcast. If you do one thing today, listen to A Few Things I’m Pretty Sure About. 

  • The Psychology of Human Misjudgment. If you do two things today, also watch Tiny’s abridged and animated version of Charlie Munger’s classic talk. Or listen to the whole thing.

Tom Ferguson
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