Zürich, Switzerland – Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized venture capital firm with two decades of water-sector leadership, announced reaching the €100 million milestone for its Global Water Fund II. After announcing the first close of €60 million late in 2025, the fund started the year by welcoming two additional investors to reach this milestone: Temasek, already a cornerstone investor in Emerald’s first Global Water Fund and Grundfos Foundation, owner of Grundfos, the largest pump manufacturer in the world, headquartered in Denmark. Other investors include Veralto Corporation, Ecolab, SKion Water and Oxy Technology Ventures. This diverse investor base – spanning institutional investors, water technology, specialty chemicals, and energy – highlights the urgent need for investment in water resilience technology across sectors and geographies.
Global Water Fund II is targeting a total size of €150–180 million. The fund will accelerate innovation across the entire water value chain by investing in early to growth stage companies worldwide that are developing solutions in infrastructure and business resilience, advanced treatment, reuse, digitally enhanced monitoring, prediction, decision making and automation as well as technologies to address emerging contaminants.
“With Temasek and Grundfos Foundation joining Global Water Fund II, we are bringing together two globally influential organizations with highly complementary perspectives on water resilience. The fund is designed as a platform where this kind of collaboration can take shape – connecting long-term capital, industrial leadership, and breakthrough technologies to accelerate solutions across the global water system,” said Dr. Helge Daebel, Partner at Emerald and longstanding head of its water practice.
“Within the water sector, we are convinced that doing business goes hand in hand with doing good. Our investment is a bid to help more water startups grow strong and address global water and climate challenges,” said Executive Director Kim Nøhr Skibsted, Grundfos Foundation.
Emerald’s first water fund has catalyzed multiple water-tech success stories, leveraging the firm’s unique track record in the sector – which includes successful exits of portfolio companies to industry giants such as SUEZ, Xylem and BASF. Another measure of its success has been the fund’s facilitation of key collaborations between corporations and start-ups/scale-ups, such as the work that Microsoft has accomplished with Kilimo and FIDO. This proven platform and expertise give the new fund a running start in identifying high-impact water innovations.