BIV Monthly Update XXXIX

Written By Tom Ferguson

We hope you had a simply rip-roaring holiday, and that 2024 is off to a flying start. Please find the BIV Monthly Update XXXIX below. More gas in the tank for NLine, Spout and Ziptility, and some really excellent year-end commercial results. The table is well-set for the year ahead. 

The main thing we want to point you towards this month is The Fundamental Molecule, BIV’s podcast interview series with founders, company leaders and water luminaries. We want to build a compendium of all of the most valuable insights of people who have been there and done that in the business of early stage water, creating an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to start a company in the sector. 5 episodes in, and many more to come. All feedback welcome. 

BIV Monthly Update – January 10, 2024

“Welcome back, Pointers…” Debi Newberry, Grosse Pointe Blank

Highlights

  • Welcoming Jessica Pascolini to the Burnt Island as our Head of Operations. She is such a phenomenal person who was already the bedrock of key elements of our work, and to have her as part of the team a huge pleasure.

  • Feeling this team hit its stride as a collective, and understanding how my role in it has to evolve in order for the whole to function as effectively as possible. Real parting-of-the-clouds stuff. I have work to do…

  • Watching NLine Energy work through and close an exacting fundraise process accurately, methodically and on-time. They have an amazing market in front of them, and the balance sheet to take it on at scale.

  • Seeing Ziptility’s year-end results after the challenges of the first half of the year. So impressive.

  • Running down the portfolio 45 days before the third anniversary of our first close and seeing 16 companies building real solutions to real problems, led by top quality people, for the most part in strong commercial and financial positions, and feeling pride in supporting them in their journeys. Barf, I know… but it’s a great feeling.

  • Our whole (British) family together for the first time since 2019! Our niece Poppy is the best. Also a safari of Edinburgh University friends (and London pubs) over New Year. 

January Asks

BIV Portfolio Updates

  • Spout – Successful Black Friday, strong holiday sales, $1.3m closed and manufacturing initiated. 2,320 pre-orders and counting.

  • SwiftComply – Industrial Pretreatment Management Software ready. Layering the offerings.

  • Ziptility – Passed 100 customers.They didn’t churn a single dollar in 2023.

  • ZwitterCo – Announced their new 30,000-square-foot Innovation Center in MA. An exciting couple of months ahead.

  • 2S Water – Semifinalist at the Water Resource Innovation Challenge 2023.

  • Aclarity – Excellent results with latest foam fractionate demo. PFAS Company of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan.

  • Aquafortus – Eagerly awaiting the results of the pilot in January.

  • Beagle Services - Launched Chicago and expanded in NY.

  • CivilGrid – Good CWA Fall Conference in Indian Wells, pushing the commercial accelerator.

  • Daupler – Included (again) in the 2024 GovTech 100. Strong EOY planning process, and commercial hiring. Exciting year ahead. 

  • Floodbase –  Awarded a grant to provide flood insurance to farmers in Mozambique and Malawi.

  • Irrigreen – Taking orders for the 2024 spring season.

  • LAIIER – $635k deal to build LAIIER's leak sensing technology into the flat roofing systems of one of the world's leading construction materials manufacturers. Starting Series A process.

  • NLine Energy – They now have a very strong balance sheet and an enormous market in front of them. Multiple close before EOY 2023 took them past $10m.

  • SewerAI – Passed $6m bookings target well before the year end.

  • Shower Stream – First run of Gen 2 Shower Stream shower heads installed at Extended Stay America.

  • 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: 880 (+35)

  • We have a crowded top end of the forced curve. Bodes well for a strong start, and lots for the team to consider.

Team

  • Welcome Jessica, our new Head of Operations.

  • It was such a pleasure to conduct our 360 EOY Review process for the team. Such thoughtful, kind feedback and encouragement criss-crossing the organization. I have a lot to live up to. 

BIV Insight/Visibility

We’re Reading/Listening/Watching

  • Good piece in Forbes on Optimizing Crucial Water Supply Networks With Mobile Technology. Applies to many of the Burnt Islanders.

  • An interesting look at ongoing struggles with cybersecurity specifically among small water utilities.

  • Clear Thinking from Shane Parrish - sound advice abounds. His weekly newsletter, Farnam Street, is well worth a follow.

  • Trust by Hernan Diaz. Beautifully evocative of the Upper East Side of old, not necessarily in a good way, with an excellently executed structure.

  • Same as Ever. I am very boring about Morgan Housel for good reason. It is because he rocks. 

  • “The Witches” at the National in London was my son’s first play. Special moment for me, given I used to be an actor, and I was in the writer Lucy Kirkwood’s first play at Edinburgh University. It was excellent. 

Things to Work On

  • Q1 (and potentially Q2) will be ruthlessly focused on the Team.

  • That’s it. 

Tom Ferguson
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