New fund aims to accelerate innovation in water

Non-profit organisation Imagine H20 has launched a new fund to help entrepreneurs access the resources, finance and people they need to accelerate the development of water and climate solutions.

What makes the fund unique?

The Water Innovation Pilot Fund is a ‘special purpose vehicle’ backed by Imagine H20’s accelerator programs and supported by The Coca-Cola Company and Oceankind, with more partners likely to come on board later. The company states the following benefits:

• Fund sustainability – recoverable grants and loans will be deployed to recycle funds and finance more pilots;
• Catalytic capital – pilots can serve different purposes, from tech validation to market expansion;
• Project support – end-to-end pilot design and implementation advisory will help increase project success;
• Measurable impact – solutions will be adopted at scale as communities find it easier to test new technologies.

Why is there a need to accelerate pilot funding?

With the threats facing our communities, watersheds and environments from climate-related disasters on the increase and with the UN estimating 2 billion people relying on unsafe drinking water sources by 2030, there is a real need for innovative solutions and new water tech entrepreneurs to transform how we monitor, treat, and restore our water resources.

There is an upward trend in the number of water tech startups receiving funding. For example, in 2024, Imagine H20’s innovation programs registered 395 water tech startups from 41 countries; between 2021 and 2023, the organisation saw more of its startups successfully raise venture capital than during the previous decade. 

However, these successes mask a wider and deeper problem. As ImagineH20 state:

• Risk capital doesn’t always align with the sector’s long adoption cycles. 
• Investors require a track record to de-risk a new technology or an unfamiliar market;
• Grants are scarce for market testing, and many early adopters are unable or unwilling to pay for demonstration projects;
• Globally, investment in water is outpaced by other climate tech domains;
• Risk aversion also remains high when a new technology fails to have a local case study or team.

As a result of these barriers, entrepreneurs need both financial and on-the-ground support.

How will the Water Innovation Pilot Fund help entrepreneurs?

Building on Imagine H2O’s Urban Water Challenge supported by Oceankind and the Sustainable Solutions Access Partnership supported by The Coca-Cola Foundation, the fund will scale a single, global funding strategy for water solutions.

Three categories of pilots will be supported: Early validation of novel technologies; solution development of new features and services; and market expansion into new segments and geographies. 

Over the next three years, the fund will co-finance up to 40 projects using recoverable grants and loans. The grants will average €91,580 which startups can use for different purposes, e.g. first-of-its-kind technology validation or new market expansion. 

Imagine H20 will make use of its portfolio of 217 startups and international early-adopter networks to help identify the right projects with the right partners, while its growing network of technical and market experts are activated to advise startups on implementation to increase likelihood of pilot success.

Startups will be provided dedicated support to document and share project insights with peers and partners to incentivize wider adoption.

A special purpose vehicle will recycle funds to sustain more pilots, with larger, impact-linked loans scheduled to be launched at a later date.