Echo River Capital - February 2026 Update
- Peter Yollens
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
New Investment – Manhole Metrics At the dawn of the AI-era, who will win and who will lose? Echo River’s latest investment in founder Will Dubin’s ManholeMetrics expands on the “digitizing water information” thesis. Echo River has long sought to invest in companies that monitor and collect the data using real-time, in-situ sensors. These companies will be able to build a moat around the ownership and control of the data, while leveraging AI as a tool to process the data into valuable, actionable products and services. In MHM’s case, the data will be assembled and delivered to help industrials, cities, insurers, and transportation customers better understand risks to their assets from deluges powered by increased atmospheric energy and storms.
Echo River’s AgTech affinity group powers on CEOs from Echo River’s AgTech portfolio assembled at the Fresno State Water and Energy Technology Lab after the World Ag Expo concluded. We met with WET Center’s director Eric Haddon to explore further collaboration. WET hosts four of these companies at their offices supporting their product development and go-to-market efforts including AgMonitor, Kairospace, WaterOne, and Swan Systems.
PORTFOLIO UPDATES
Hohonu selected by World Economic Forum, HCL and Uplink to share $2m prize:
“This recognition affirms that solutions developed in island communities can have global relevance,” said Brian Glazer, Hohonu CEO and co-founder, and associate professor in UH Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “Building tools alongside the people most affected by flooding has shaped how we think about access, equity and long-term resilience, and it’s exciting to see that approach resonate on an international stage.”
(Source)
🌧️Uravu Labs published its latest white paper, "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿-𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲." It reveals something extraordinary: “Uravu's breakthrough technology takes the waste heat that data centers are already desperately trying to get rid of and transforms it into fresh, distilled water. By 2030, integrating Uravu’s atmospheric water generation technology could produce enough fresh water to serve 𝟮𝟭 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 people annually—that's like serving the annual needs of megacities like Tokyo, Mumbai, and Mexico City —while saving the industry more than $𝟵 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 in cooling costs annually. From water-starved regions like Singapore and Phoenix to rapidly growing hubs like Mumbai and Amsterdam, this isn't just innovation for its own sake. This is survival. This is responsibility. This is the future arriving early.”
🥳 Solidec has been selected as a Deep Tech Pioneer by Hello Tomorrow!
💨Waterplan is announcing a carbon license for water-dependent companies. Waterplan is expanding their powerful model to include carbon, so companies can manage both water and carbon in a single, easy-to-use tool. This means simpler coordination for teams, and, most importantly, stronger execution of product roadmaps to drive real impact and reach water and carbon targets faster.
🌱Swan Systems announced enhanced integration between its software and customers’ irrigation controllers. SwanSynce translates crop water demand into coordinated irrigation actions, without systems working in isolation.
🫧 Kairospace, the leader in nanobubbles, inked a new distribution partnership with Perigo Systems. Joint “Kairospace x Perigo” ag installs are turnkey precision oxygenation systems: auto‑activated when irrigation starts, delivering high‑pressure oxygen through Kairospace injectors integrated into Perigo‑built manifolds and controls.
⚒️Voda presented at the World Water-Tech Innovation Summit in London. Voda also released a new case study showing how Tucson saved $5.4M by coordinating paving and pipe planning based on real infrastructure needs. George Demosthenous, CEO VODA.ai®, breaks down when AI-driven risk prediction delivers real ROI, and when it doesn’t.
💧Active Membranes appointed Eric M.V. Hoek, Ph.D. as executive chairman as the company moves from extended pilot programs into a commercial growth phase.
💩CREW Carbon has secured $2.35M from the Colorado Energy Office to deploy its engineered enhanced weathering tech at a Colorado wastewater treatment facility. Funded under Colorado’s Clean Air Program, the project will:
🪨 Dose wastewater with minerals like limestone
🌊 Convert CO₂ into stable dissolved bicarbonate ions
📉 Lower plant operating costs
📜 Generate high-quality carbon removal credits
The move supports Colorado’s goal of cutting industrial emissions 20% by 2030 (vs. 2015).
Watergenics is expanding into lithium and copper extraction processes in Chile.
Portfolio Jobs
Echo River Capital Updates
Newsha Ajami Joins as Advisor
Welcome to Echo River Capital's newest advisor, Newsha Ajami, PhD. We have a shared pedigree, both starting our careers at the Pacific Institute. Newsha is an engineer with a deep economics and water policy background. She currently leads strategy at Berkeley Labs after a stint at Stanford University. She recently co-chaired Aspen Institute’s National Water Strategy. Newsha joins advisors Paul Fleming, Megan Leitch, PhD, and Peter Fiske, PhD.
Global Water Intelligence Reviews Echo River Fund I
Global Water Intelligence Editor-in-Chief Ian Elkins published a review of Echo River Capital Fund I (see attached). The article comes as water technology funding activity rose 20% in 2025, with more than $1 billion of third-party equity capital committed to water technology companies for the second consecutive year. (Source)
Industry Updates
Global Water Intelligence and Xylem released a major report on January 18, 2026, projecting that AI's value chain will drive a 129% increase in water demand by 2050, adding 30 trillion liters annually from power generation, semiconductor fabrication, and data center expansion. Echo River’s portfolio is already engaged with several hyperscalers, from Uravu Labs which uses Atmospheric Water Harvesting to provide cooling, to Swan Systems that provides water replenishment projects to Microsoft, to WaterPlan that manages operational water risk for AWS.
The UN released its flagship water report on January 19, 2026, warning that the world has entered an era of "global water bankruptcy," with 75% of the global population living in water insecure or critically insecure nations. The report, released ahead of the 2026 UN Water Conference in Dakar, Senegal, highlights that 50% of the world's large lakes have lost water since the early 1990s and 70% of major aquifers show long-term decline. Portfolio company WaterOne.ai is tackling groundwater over-extraction directly by enabling California’s 100 groundwater management agencies to build water balance tools and share water supply and pricing information through its AI user interface.
US Drought Monitor published its latest weekly map. What’s interesting is that California has no areas in drought while the South and Southeast are experiencing Extreme Drought. When I was leading sales at WaterSmart, we would use this map to focus our outbound calls on these drought-stricken areas – sometimes to great effect. I wouldn’t be surprised if companies helping manage water scarcity start getting traction in these areas.
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