There is no substitute.
We are at a turning point. From the wildfires of the Western US to flooding in Niger, climate change is here. Water resources across the world will be under increasing stress as the world warms. Products and services that allow individuals, governments and companies to navigate this change will see more and more demand. Entrepreneurs are emerging with the skill and insight to meet that demand, developing solutions to water problems at scale. Burnt Island Ventures exists to find, fund and support the best of these founders.
The Water Value Chain
Source it.
Water doesn’t begin at the tap. It begins in the sky, in soil, in storm drains, and in the sea. As climate volatility shifts where water appears, the ability to reliably source it becomes essential. Rainwater and stormwater can be captured instead of wasted. Oceans and brackish aquifers can be transformed through ever-more-efficient desalination. Even the air itself can become supply.
New technologies turn unpredictable natural inputs into dependable resources, expanding access without deepening extraction.
Move It.
Water is astonishingly heavy, and the networks built to move it are failing. Leaks, breaks, and aging pipes waste trillions of liters a year. Smarter materials, sensing, robotics, and pressure management are transforming buried infrastructure into something visible and manageable. Efficient transmission means safer, cheaper, more reliable water for everyone.
Monitor it.
You can’t manage what you can’t see. Utilities face a growing list of contaminants (PFAS, microplastics, lead) alongside rising demand and stressed infrastructure. Low-cost, real-time monitoring keeps people safe while helping operators optimize the entire system. Better insight across the network supports smarter decisions, lower costs, and long-term resilience.
Treat it.
Water must be made safe before it can be used — for cities, farms, and industry. New treatment paradigms are emerging: decentralized instead of centralized, low-energy instead of energy-intensive, circular instead of linear. Wastewater is shifting from a cost to a source of value as contaminants drop and resource recovery climbs. Better treatment means healthier people and stronger economies.
