The business of water innovation, on the record.
(don't) Waste Water is the independent publication on the people and the money behind water innovation: the early-stage companies, the venture & growth capital and strategics that back them, and the deals that decide who wins. Engineer Antoine Walter puts the founders and investors on the record, then reports what the numbers actually say.
The front page
Will Gradiant finally IPO?
Private equity now owns nearly 600 water platforms and can't cleanly exit a single one. I spent three days in Madrid asking the funds, founders and bankers who move this money whether the sector's first unicorn can cut the cord, and the honest answer is more fragile, and more interesting, than any press release.
A century-old asphalt company quietly out-dealt every specialist water fund. I got the deployment confirmed to the dollar: $48,523,663.
Hydropanels, Gates-backed money, a billion-dollar story, then silence. The autopsy nobody else wrote.
How a German family office rolled up water in near-total silence, then sold the whole thing.
How a Quebec membrane company out-bought the giants: 19 deals, and only one ever ran through a banker.
Four ways into the water economy
Deals & Exits
Every acquisition, take-private and exit in water, tracked deal by deal.
Capital & Investors
The money funding water, and which backers actually stick around.
Company-Builders
The early-stage companies building, scaling, and sometimes dying, in water.
Water-Tech
How the technology actually commercializes, and what it costs to get there.
Latest on the podcast
300+ conversations since 2020, on six continents, founders, investors and the strategics, on the record. All episodes →
Who's behind it
Antoine Walter
A second-generation water engineer with 15+ years in the sector (formerly SUEZ, across Europe and Asia-Pacific), Antoine founded and hosts (don't) Waste Water and has personally interviewed 300+ founders, investors and operators since 2020, on six continents, from seed-stage founders to the strategics that buy them. He built the data the reporting runs on.
No press releases, no pay-to-play, no sponsored content, no hidden agenda, just genuine, deeply researched opinion and facts.
Frequently asked
- What does (don't) Waste Water cover?
- The business of water innovation: the early-stage companies, the venture and growth capital and strategics funding them, the deals and exits, and the technologies that actually commercialize, reported independently, with the founders and investors on the record.
- Does it cover public water companies, stocks and ETFs?
- Yes. There are few public pure-play water names, so the coverage naturally bends toward the private innovation ecosystem, but public companies, the strategics, water stocks and ETFs all feature across the articles, analyses, episodes and videos.
- Is (don't) Waste Water independent?
- Yes, in the way that matters: no press releases, no pay-to-play, no sponsored content, no hidden agenda. Just genuine, deeply researched opinion and facts. That independence of judgment is what sets it apart from the trade press and the paywalled-analyst incumbents.
- Who is Antoine Walter?
- A water engineer who has personally interviewed 300+ founders and investors since 2020, across six continents. He founds and hosts (don't) Waste Water and compiles the data behind the reporting.
- How do you rank water investors?
- Where it's useful, by the Water Commitment Score, one lens among several, which captures a fund's repeat, still-active commitment to water rather than its returns. It's a tool inside the Capital pillar, not the whole story. See the methodology.