BIV Monthly Update XLVIII
BIV Monthly Update – October 18, 2024
“ALRIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!” Marcella, Grosse Pointe Blank
Highlights
Surviving the last six weeks!! It really has been a lot, but also a lot to like - Climate Week (including our own event), WEFTEC (ditto), Boston, UConn, Madrid, Minnesota, NYC Fam Office Summit and time in Palo Alto at Stanford (2 classes taught) and with the wonderful WovenEarth team.
Announced our investment in TeamSolve, a stellar company highly practical AI to transform the capabilities of utility operators, boosting productivity by 40%.
Completed our investment in Aqua Membranes, the first in our Opportunity Fund I. They represent a step change in treatment efficiency. 2x oversubscribed. BIV Partner Steve Kloos previously worked with the founding team, and this is a new technical design standard in a $7.4bn market ($14bn by 2032). Closely followed by an unannounced second investment. And breathe…
Confirmed our first Fund II follow-ons in two excellent companies. World-class founders who are really cooking. Let ‘em cook.
Feeling so unbelievably grateful to Ruki and Kiyan who put up with me not being around a lot since August, both physically and mentally. I am so lucky.
October Asks
Register for our next BIV Session with Cala Systems this Thursday, October 10th at 1pm ET.
Tune into a new episode of The Fundamental Molecule with Mae Stevens - Building the Case for Water on Capitol Hill and Ifetayo Venner - Gatekeepers, Big Infrastructure and Leadership.
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
Fund I
Daupler – Won Vendor to Watch at the Smart Water Summit. Check-out this latest customer video on Daupler’s impact on customers and crews. Round imminent.
Floodbase – Wyatt Darnell highlights AI’s role in public work in this TV interview with PWX.
Irrigreen – Introduced their Smart Controller 3, a massive upgrade on an already top notch product. The reviews are really good…
LAIIER – LAIIER Announces Availability of Severn WLD™ Early Water Leak Detection Solution on Netmore LoRaWAN® Network. This is a good thing.
NLine Energy – Established a JV for PPA sales with zero money down for customers. Pipeline fully cleaned, and still $100m+. The opportunity is wild.
SewerAI – Featured in the Trenchless Canada Fall 2024 Issue. WEFTEC went very well indeed. Adjacencies starting to show themselves.
Shower Stream – Humming along nicely. 50% committed on their Series A.
Spout – Scored 98/99 on quality and performance of their water filters. 30 units off the production line, and 1,000 units fully paid for. Fulfillment in the coming months. Exciting. <$400k left in this round, and it’s an increasingly good deal.
SwiftComply – Attended the annual North Carolina Pretreatment Conference, and great showing at WEFTEC. It’s a great business, in a great position.
Ziptility – Joined the North Carolina Rural Water Association. The need for this product only grows larger in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Big opportunity for contract operators.
ZwitterCo – Two world class hires on the team recently. Genuinely world class. Alex navigating key strategic decisions with ever-impressive thoughtfulness. Great for Steve and I to spend some time with them in September.
2S Water – 5 upcoming deployments. Pulling the board together nicely.
Aclarity – Officially has a new headquarters and innovation center in Medway, MA. Also on the Norrsken Impact/100 list for 2024. Strong technical work from the team.
Aquafortus – Steve joined as a board member and is already bringing terrific insight to the team. A big task ahead of them but the team is pulling together nicely.
Beagle Services – Tons of inbound from insurance companies. Will hit above $6M in 2024 revenues and on track to double that in 2025.
CivilGrid – Strong growth through their expansion to Florida, and major account pickups. Building the engine well, some transitions ahead.
Fund II
HOPE Hydration – Wildly successful time at Climate Week. It’s a lot - check it out. This team really understands the power of brand, and the application of force. Fast end to the year incoming.
TeamSolve – Announced the close of their Seed round - read more here. Invited by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore to share the TeamSolve story.
Aquatic Labs - Meeting significant product milestones, with alpha units in the field. A good foundation being laid. We think the VCM will be coming back in the coming months, and reliable MRV will be critical to trust.
Cala Systems - The in-person Board Meeting in Boston was eye-opening - the quality of their technical work, their approach to problem-solving, the quality of the process logic is all very high indeed. A small sliver of their Seed II is still available.
Subeca - Featured in Bluefield Research podcast. Navigating some complicated issues with aplomb. Commercially on track for an excellent end to the year.
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: 1333 (+21)
A strong emphasis on novel hardware solutions this month, across wastewater treatment, clean water generation, and green chemicals. A number of options for smaller checks in well-priced rounds with big upside potential, that give us a headstart on concentration.
Interesting to see the development of the digital side of things at WEFTEC. The leaders like SewerAI have excellent momentum, and some interesting companies are being built across the management spectrum. Still so much opportunity in encoding outdated processes.
Team
Just so much excellent hard work by the team in the last six weeks. We’ve put ourselves in a great position. Brava/o.
BIV Insight/Visibility
Jennie did a stellar job on a panel with an impressive group at the CleanTech Group’s Mitigation and Adaptation event in Boston.
Christine and I covered the city at Climate Week and barely saw each other (discipline and coverage!). Thanks Sciens for having us both on panels at Columbia, and thanks to all who came to our sold-out Thursday event.
Christine, Steve and Jennie and I hit the floor at WEFTEC. I made everyone feel smarter on a couple of panels. Excellent work from WEF, IH2O and BlueTech as ever in the Innovation Pavilion. It’s come such a long way.
Excellent episode from the Catalyst podcast with Shayle Kann and Katie MacDonald on climate adaptation. Thanks so much for mentioning us in the episode. Tune in here.
Excellent piece from Tim McDonnell at SEMAFOR on data centers' ravenous thirst for water and solutions like ZwitterCo. Thanks so much for including me in the article
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We’re Reading/Listening/Watching
11th National Risk Assessment: Portfolio Pressures. 57 Banks in the US may face “Material Financial Risk” due to changes in climate and specifically water.
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Milton. The impact on society and economies is truly unrelenting, and the continuing underemphasis on adaptation and resilience in the VC and broader finance community is…well, it’s weird.
The 2024 Global Water Tariff Survey from GWI. The average water, wastewater and stormwater bill is up "a whopping 10.7%.”
Sobering statistic: fecal coliform contaminates 48% of the drinking water accessed by people in low & middle income countries globally in Science.
The Paul Graham Founder Mode train and all of the subsequent commentary. We thought this one on female “founder mode” double standard was particularly intriguing.
This interview with Al Pacino is excellent. I’m late to it, but so is Monkey Man (hot fact: Dev Patel and I used to share an acting agent…. yeah, I do something else now).
Things to Work On
Once the mountain is climbed, there is another one behind it looming up out of the mist. It’s another big month for us, but we got this.
