BIV Monthly Update LXI

Monthly Updates
Written By Tom Ferguson

BIV Monthly Update LXI – 11/10/2025 (Happy Birthday, Mum - and Dad for the 24th!)

“The way I see it, someone’s out to make a sequel…” Randy Scream 2

Highlights

  • Announcing our $50m Fund II. The rock got pushed up that hill.

  • HOPE’s first Board Meeting. Woof, is there a big company to be built there. 

  • Sharing the stage with Jane from WovenEarth, Bill from Convective, and Shomik from Overture at the Sahar’s Annual Impact Investor Summit.

  • Closing our 15th investment in Fund II. We led a big round in a great company. We can’t wait to see what they do. 

  • Halloween in Brooklyn is always fun. Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and the Grim Reaper took a photo with Kramer. 

October Asks

BIV Portfolio Updates

Seed Fund I

  • 2S Water – Participated in the Banff Venture Forum, hosted by Alberta Innovates, and won Best Agtech company and got 2nd place in the Scaleup Super Session

  • Aclarity – A variety of promising steps forward, including multiple additional deployments in negotiation. Hats off to the team.

  • Aquafortus – Recognized by DCVC for delivering scalable, deep-tech solutions to Texas’ energy and water challenges, participated in Water Environment Federation webcast “Demystifying Produced Water,” and hosted Aquafortus Kids Science Day in New Zealand, highlighting experiments showcasing density, crystallization, and the ABX process to inspire future innovators.

  • Beagle Services – Interviewed on the AM Best Podcast and Insurance Nerds’ Profiles in Risk podcast. CEO PauL Vacquier wrote a piece for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America on how agents can embrace risk-mitigation tech to strengthen underwriting and client value

  • CivilGrid – Hiring across Product, Sales, Data, and Ops. BIG announcement to come.

  • Daupler –  Named #1 Fastest Growing Gov-Tech Company by Power Almanac. Hiring across Product and Sales.

  • Floodbase – Speaking at the Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference this week to share how Floodbase powered parametric insurance can protect municipalities' balance sheets and credit ratings after catastrophic flooding. Hiring across Commercial and Product.

  • Irrigreen – Looking for a B2B Sales Representative and a DTC Sales Manager. Crushed their Equip Expo show. Moving towards a big partnership milestone.

  • NLine Energy – Partnered with AFS Energy Systems on a new installation at Durgin & Crowell, pairing biomass boilers with NLine’s turbine-generators to convert waste steam into renewable power and cut GHGs. Hosted webinar “The $60 Million Payoff,” featuring Penn State Health’s CHP system delivering major savings in power, heat, and emissions.

  • SewerAI – Hosted “Turning AI into ROI” webinar with PURIS and HK Solutions Group. Presented at Trimble Innovate and PG&E’s Cross Bore Vendor Summit, where its AI inspection tech cut manual review time by 70%. Highlighted on the Waterloop podcast for bringing near–real-time insights to underground infrastructure. Active across major North American conferences including NC One Water Annual Conference, SCAWWA WEASC Operator Conference, Joint Fall Conference, Rivers Wet Weather Inc 26th Annual Sewer Conference, and No-Dig North 2025.

  • Spout – 400 units out in the wild and counting. Kudos to Reuben and team.

  • Ziptility – Showcased at the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water (AIRW)’s Fall Conference.

  • ZwitterCo – Preparing to showcase at IWC 2025 in Orlando, where they will present real-world results from a sugar refinery installation achieving 70–80% recovery and strong fouling resistance with zwitterionic RO membranes. Featured in Dairy Foods, highlighting how Evolution RO saved over 1M gallons of freshwater in a year while advancing dairy sustainability.

Seed Fund II

Growth Fund I

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: 1910 (+47)

  • Lately we’ve been diving into opportunities for OPEX savings at the wastewater treatment plant - refining biological treatment, cutting energy use, and improving sludge management. These are some big line items and the potential for meaningful savings is huge. 

  • We are keeping a close eye on innovation around emerging contaminants like PFAS, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals, particularly in Europe, where the market is increasingly receptive. 

  • We are also beginning to look further afield at new regions, where major water challenges await - and where a new wave of exceptional founders with impressive market fit are building.

Market Insights

  • American Water and Essential Utilities will merge in an all-stock, tax-free deal to create the largest regulated U.S. water and wastewater utility, valued at ~$63B. The combined company will serve 4.7M connections across 17 states with a $29.3B rate base. Essential shareholders get 0.305 American Water shares (~10% premium). The merger expands scale, efficiency, and geographic reach while maintaining 7–9% EPS and DPS growth targets. Closing expected Q1 2027; the company will operate under the American Water name.

  • GWI reports that climate change is driving up Europe’s water costs, with new legislation and large infrastructure investments pushing tariff increases. According to GWI, average global water-tariff growth in 2024-25 was 6.2%. Europe is now leading the way in those increases, largely because of the need to bolster resilience against climate impacts.

  • CFM’s Climate Investor Two fund closed at USD 1.065B, surpassing its USD 1B target and becoming the largest climate adaptation infrastructure fund in emerging markets. The blended finance fund focuses on water, waste, and ocean projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Its new Bridge-to-Bond mechanism opens the fund to institutional bond investors, reflecting strong appetite for adaptation finance.

  • FT reports private equity is increasingly investing in utilities, targeting rising power demand from AI data centres. Deals include Blackstone’s $11.5B acquisition of TXNM Energy and Global Infrastructure Partners’ near $38B AES takeover. Utilities appeal due to regulated monopoly cash flows and growth potential, with some PE-backed utilities expecting high single- to double-digit growth. Exit activity in US utilities jumped to $14.6B in 2025, up from $3.16B in 2023. 

Team

  • There are not enough words, so I will use two. They rule.

BIV Insight/Visibility

We’re Reading/Listening/Watching

Opportunities and a little bit of everything

Things to Work On

  • Remembering that when there is something to celebrate, the likelihood of standing on a rake gets significantly higher!

  • Keep the eye on the ball for the Growth Fund. It ain’t over.

Thanks so much as ever.

Tom Ferguson
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