Counting debt funding rounds, $631M has been raised so far in 75 rounds by water and waste management companies this year, compared to $1.1B in 142 rounds in 2015. The only other year to see billion dollar investments was 2013; both founding and funding activity peaked in 2015, though 2014 saw the highest number of investment rounds. Early stage funding has surpassed late stage funding this year, it’s the first such instance for the sector.
Companies focusing on management of waste across the value chain including collection, disposal and processing into various forms such as electricity, fuels and compost have attracted the most funding at $4.2B. To compare, companies specialised in water and wastewater management have received $1.6B in funding. For both these business models, businesses focused on processing and recycling treatments have attracted the highest share of funding.
Florida-based Advanced Disposal, specialised in waste disposal, collection and recycling bagged a $280M round this August 2016, the largest investment in this space this year.
Houston-based H2O Midstream ($100M, PE), Hayward-based Rayvio ($26M, Series C), and Austin-based Urban Mining ($25M, Series A) secured notable funding rounds this year.
IcosCapital (Metalmembranes, BiAqua) and Start-Up Chile (Trudev, Ecociclus) are the most active investors at the seed stage. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (Attero, Oasys Water) and KPCB (Harvest Power, Recyclebank) are most active at the Series A stage and beyond.
There have been seven acquisitions in this space in 2016, the largest among them was of Irvine-based hazardous waste management solutions provider Kurion’s acquisition by Veolia for $350M in Feb 2016. The Waste & Water Management report covers companies which develop technology solutions to manage waste and water resources. Preview the report below.
