BIV Monthly Update LXX

Written By Tom Ferguson

BIV Monthly Update LXX – 8/17/2026

“Honey, I’m thirsty” Gloria Clemente, White Men Can’t Jump


Highlights‍ ‍

  • Delighted to announce our investment in Biota in Fund II. Rose (founder & CEO) is a remarkable human, and we think they will be a critical part of unlocking the PFAS market. Welcome aboard. 

  • 400 people signed up for Steve’s panel session on the future of the Colorado River Basin. An exceptional discussion on a nationally-critical issue. You can access the recording here. 

  • The City of Miami Commission approved a one-year pilot to expand free filtered water across parks, transit hubs and public spaces with HOPE Hydration. HUGE effort for the team, and could be the perfect urban demo project. 

  • AlgaFilm's Kingsville demo hit 85% ammonia removal at commercial scale – plus 20% total nitrogen and 25% total phosphorus. Remarkable outcomes for the price point. 

  • TeamSolve signed an MoU with Sarawak Water. They’ll be expanding their Knowledge Twin for AI-augmented utility operations, NRW management, and digital transformation across Malaysia.

  • Previsico expanded into Africa, starting with South Africa, backed by an InsuResilience Investment Fund grant. The relentless expansion of the Burnt Islanders’ tech is a key to the impact of our platform. 

  • More generally - the asymmetry of good news vs bad news in the portfolio. Nothing’s ever perfect, but long may it continue. This extends to the turnarounds in a number of companies that were finding things tough - five in particular. Hats off to all the teams. 

  • Swimming in a whole bunch of different bodies of water, from Hudson Valley pools to not-quite-deep-enough Scottish rivers. Good summer splashy (and sometimes grindingly but affirmingly cold) fun. Kiyan is SO intrepid. 

August Asks

BIV Portfolio Updates

Seed Fund I

  • 2S Water – Anthea and the team are heads down, building well. Some interesting news to come. 

  • Aclarity – Mike and the team are active on the round, and it’s coming together nicely. Their destruction numbers on the first commercial site are remarkable, and momentum is there for expansion.

  • Aquafortus – Hoshang and team working through a major collaboration in Korea – battery manufacturing wastewater is a monster problem and ABX Technology fits. Series B conversations ongoing.

  • Beagle Services – A great, ahem, drip-feed of increasingly awesome stories of tens of thousands of dollars saved, both for homeowners and insurers. Some great steps taken this month on the future of the business. 

  • CivilGrid – Josh and the team out on the road – NASTO 2026 in Baltimore and WASHTO 2026 in Las Vegas. Moving fast. 

  • Daupler – Impressive focus on customer success this month. So much expansion potential. 

  • Floodbase – Central Texas got hammered with flash floods again – second July in a row. Floodbase mapped the event in real-time and shared inundation data with local officials.

  • Irrigreen – WIRED gave the System 3.0 a strong review – "most advanced water-printing tech on the market." The drip irrigation valve is a big unlock. Really good hardware work.

  • LAIIER – Severn WLD deployments growing across commercial and industrial buildings in North America and Europe. Running at a very healthy annual clip now.

  • NLine Energy – Record Q2 (5x). Will have their first ex-NA deployment imminently. Extraordinary reliability data. Just massive energy efficiency potential here. 

  • Spout – 1000 units in the field, and the next 1000 in production. Reuben doing a great job. 

  • Ziptility – Profitable, and keeping on keeping on. Sleeper hit here, and some interesting folks are starting to notice. Blake Anderson featured on Ep. 55 of The Fundamental Molecule. He is awesome. 

  • ZwitterCo – Pea protein is the latest frontier – moved from niche to core input in food processing, and concentration is one of the hardest membrane steps. ZwitterCo's anti-fouling membranes built for exactly this.

Seed Fund II

  • AlgaFilm – 85% ammonia removal at the Kingsville commercial demo – plus 20% total nitrogen and 25% total phosphorus. First fully commercial project on the horizon. Remarkable execution for a hardtech company on limited capital.

  • Aquatic Labs – Allan in a remarkable process at the moment - more to come there.

  • AquiSense – Deployed eight PearlAqua Kilo UV-C LED systems at a major beverage production facility – replacing legacy mercury UV. UV-C LED is entering the industrial mainstream.

  • Biota - Welcome to the Burnt Island! In a fascinating position, we can’t wait to see how Rose & the team build into their market(s). 

  • Cala Systems – Cala's fleet data shows electric resistance heating for only 7% of total heating energy – versus 35% industry average for heat pump water heaters. 360 units in the field and counting. 

  • CNSRV – DC:02 messaging sharpening up nicely – water bill rebates, compliance documentation, yield improvement. Have had some amazing but highly confidential deployments. 

  • CREW Carbon – Sold their 11th project. Executing very well indeed. Really excellent offtake news from Microsoft. $40m+ in contracted offtake now. 

  • Current Software – Inside sales motion building. Really impressive work from the whole team. Big admirers. 

  • Epoch – EUDR final product list and Information System filing rules just dropped. Epoch published a sharp analysis – the compliance challenge is real. Plot-level coordinate accuracy remains everything.

  • Flocean – Post-"first water" at Mongstad, the work continues – 15+ projects in active development. They’ve been running for > 1 month “hands off”. It’s happening.

  • HOPE Hydration – Miami City Commission approved a full one-year pilot to deploy free filtered water across parks, transit hubs and public spaces. Will be an invaluable demo city. 

  • Subeca – Amazon Sidewalk AMI case study is a beauty – one California utility hit 99%+ read rates in a 3-day billing window with zero network infrastructure. AMI in minutes. Round will close soon. This is likely to be a key holding for Fund II.

  • TeamSolve – Signed an MoU with Sarawak Water. Knowledge Twin for AI-augmented operations, asset management, and NRW management. Part of Singapore-Sarawak collaboration on water sector digital transformation. 

  • Previsico – South Africa expansion exciting. Building up to the handover, Jonathan has done a remarkable job. 

  • Power & Water – Getting through it - pipeline build almost at critical mass. Will have some important things dropping in the next 6 weeks.

  • Waterly – Strong product work focusing on clean data and new compliance calculations – trailing 7-day rolling medians for California Title 22, quarterly averages, state-specific regulatory metrics. The compliance layer is deepening.

Growth Fund I

  • Aqua Membranes – First sale to another global F&B major. Vital step forward with a major in the ultrapure water space. On track for their new element production process that will produce the lowest cost, highest performance membrane element on the market. Woof. 

  • Daupler – Impressive focus on customer success this month. So much expansion potential. Big six months ahead. 

  • Irrigreen – WIRED review, drip valve launch, summer season pull. Really strong product work. Excellent, deliberate improvement of the GtM pipeline. Key partnerships continuing to develop, and a major product will be in Beta in the next 2 weeks.

Company Pipeline

Overall Pipeline: 2,425 (+62)

  • Biota announced, and #17 from Fund II is imminent. And exciting. 

  • We are narrowing in on a few high potential areas for the final Fund II positions, with asset condition monitoring, hydrologic modeling, and AI-enabled automation and plant operations at the top of our list.

  • The Growth Fund I pipeline also gets more competitive by the day. New approaches to the plant digital twin and industrial wastewater treatment are attracting our attention.

Market Insights

  • “The economics of Europe’s drought” Financial Times. 

  • “German states suspend Sunday truck ban as low Rhine levels disrupt shipping” Financial Times. 

  • “Hungary braced for power cuts amidst extreme drought” Financial Times

  • ”Sweeping cyberattack on water systems in multiple states has US officials on edge" CNN. Cyber attacks on water systems are just one front in the increasingly obvious role water has to play in security. 

  •  "New Colorado River plan will require steep cuts for three states" CNN – California, Arizona and Nevada facing 16-20% use cuts through 2028. Lake Mead almost at the point where it won’t produce hydropower any more. See Steve’s session!

  • "The EPA looks to override state efforts to crack down on toxic water pollutants" Scienceline – EPA considering preempting state-level PFAS regulations in Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota. We’ll see how popular that is.

  • Texas Water Development Board distributing $1.2 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure projects statewide. Others are following (or will follow). 

  • England and Wales declared drought for the third time in five years – the extremity is different, however. 

Team

  • Congrats to Steve and Sue for their massive move from Boulder to Minneapolis, back where it all began. So happy for you both!

  • Marissa has her foot on the gas for TMF - some great episodes coming up, with some old friends. Exciting stuff. 

  • Feels like the deep breath before the fall sprint. Again. We’re coming for you NYCW.

BIV Insight/Visibility

We're Reading/Listening/Watching

  • Eric Ries’ “Incorruptible” is a helpful look into the structure of companies that maintain their mission. Has activated a couple of brain worms. 

  • Have been lucky to have an advanced copy of Anand Giridharadas’ new book “The Man in the Mirror” and it’s extraordinary. SO ambitious in its sweep. Keep an eye out for release in September, and for the book tour. 

  • Ruki has been hitting the Neapolitan Novels and loves them.

  • “The Invite” takes a moment to percolate, but when it hits you it really hits you. Exceptional performances, and direction from Olivia Wilde. Really intelligent, funny, and considered. 

  • In a great Rashida Jones crossover (she co-wrote The Invite), we’ve been inhaling Parks & Rec with Kiyan. He is a BIG Ron Swanson fan. And so he should be. 

  • Arsenal taking a fly swat to City in the Charity Shield. Juggle that, Cherki.

Things to Work On‍ ‍

  • Keeping the pressure on in the GF I fundraise. 

  • We have a LOT to talk about out there in the water market. Steve’s session showed the desire for people to understand what’s going on. Need to do more of it (watch this space).  

Thanks so much as ever.

Tom Ferguson
Next

Investing in Water – BIV on Bloomberg’s ESG Currents Podcast