Echo River Capital - March 2026 Update
- Peter Yollens
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
The Investment Case for Water by Sightline Climate and CTVC 💧 What if the next decade reversed #water scarcity — not deepened it?
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That's not wishful thinking. Sightline Climate's Holly Secon and Charles Bondu just laid out why the investment case is stronger than ever. CTVC's team dug into the full value chain, capital stack, market dynamics, and why dedicated water investors are finally building out a new asset class.
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I was honored to be featured alongside Tom Ferguson of Burnt Island Ventures — two funds at different stages, same conviction: water is the defining infrastructure investment of the next decade.
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A few signals that made this report compelling:
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Only ~5% of 1,000+ water investors have made more than one deal
The US investment gap grows from $94B (2024) to $146B by 2043
Private equity deal activity in water is already up 7x since 2021
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The Sightline team framed it well: water and energy are inextricable twin inputs to everything industrialized societies do — yet water has remained chronically underinvested.
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That's changing. Fast.
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đź“– Full article by the CTVC/Sightline team: https://lnkd.in/gG-dfKBA
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Imagine H2O 2026 Cohort Announcements For the 5th year in a row, two Echo River portfolio companies, Active Membranes and Uravu Labs, were accepted into the 2026 Imagine H2O Accelerator. Active is joining the main accelerator, and Uravu is joining the Asia cohort. Thrilled for both companies to gain the market access, mentor wisdom, and founder community superpowers. Congratulations! I also enjoyed speaking at the Imagine H2O Summit to the founders and on the investor panel at the Showcase.
Portfolio Company Updates
Active Membranes shipped another brackish water desalination unit – this one to Israel. Their pipeline is starting to fill, gaining momentum monthly.
Watergenics is leaning into direct lithium extraction (DLE), helping to improve resource recovery and reduce costs, generating millions of dollars for their clients. Read more here. Rio Tinto and Founders Factory have selected Watergenics and five others from among 500 applicants to their global mining accelerator, which includes an investment from the mining company.
Uravu is launching their cooling machines for data centers up to 1 MW capacity. Check out Uravu’s video explainer on their technology. Contact Swapnil@uravulabs.com to request information. Click on the image below for their explainer video on how this remarkable system works.
Solidec has launched their new website, officially announcing their next-gen, fossil-fuel free chemical production technology. Their first chemical, hydrogen peroxide, will be produced on-site, as-needed with no emissions. So excited for Ryan and their team. In recognition, Solidec has been named Green Materials Solution of the Year by the CleanTech Breakthrough Awards!
PAGE Technologies announced their pilot is officially live with the University of Wyoming’s UWYO Plant Growth & Phenotyping Facility as part of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Network. CEO Elliot Strand was selected for the Fierce Sensors Rising Stars program.
Open Hydro is thrilled to announce that it has been selected for funding by the ESA Space Solutions - Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS), part of ESA’S new ACCESS programme, to deliver our SWEEP project (Satellite Water Emissions Estimation Platform). Over 9 months, we will explore how #EarthObservation data, combined with modelling approaches, can help UK water utilities understand and manage #emissions from #reservoir systems.Â
Hohonu is assisting Hawaii’s agencies and residents to track and predict flooding during their Kona Low storm systems. Read more here. My county will be installing units this month to warn people when king tide events are likely to flood local roads.
Manhole Metrics for sewer collection systems launched their new website.
Verdi is building the Physical AI for agriculture, including automating irrigation. Their recent surveys show labor savings of $250 to $500 per acre! This is massive and a game changer for growers.
Industry Updates
Germany’s Bundesbank issued an alarming report on the financial risks from water scarcity. “The findings also highlight the central importance of water-based ecosystem services as a prerequisite for economic activity.” Thanks to Cate Lamb for highlighting this report on LinkedIn.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management referenced the Bundesbank report in its own report “Finding Investment Opportunities in Water Stress.” GSAM said: “Access to water is essential…We believe the secular theme driving growth in the water sector will only gather strength as the headlines about water stress, extreme weather events, historical underinvestment in water infrastructure and demand from data centers and AI become more frequent, adding urgency to the investment case for water.”
U.S. household water and sewer bills hit a five-year high in 2025, rising 5.1% (Bluefield Research)
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Where to Find Peter this Spring
San Francisco Climate Week:Â April 20-24
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Imagine H2O Summit (multiple events) - Speaker
-Â Â Â Â Â Â No Longer Illiquid: Investing in Water (Tue April 21)
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Sustainable Oceans Alliance (Tue April 21)
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Jewish Business Network (Wed April 22) - Speaker
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Climate x AI x Water Salon (Wed April 22)
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Investing in Water: Startup Showcase (Thu April 23) - Speaker
Echo River Investment Focus Areas:
Stages: Inception and Pre-Seed including university spin-outs
Investment Thesis: Water Tech to Digitize, Decentralize and Decarbonize the water cycle
Sub-Sectors: Industrial, Data Center Infra, Energy, Agtech, Chemicals, Insurance, Real Estate
Customer segments: B2B
Business models: SaaS; fintech/insurtech; software-enabled hardware (IoT); software-enabled services; equity-light deeptech
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