EPIC Ventures
EPIC Ventures is a Salt Lake City early-stage venture capital firm that has backed technology startups since 1994. It invests broadly across software, healthcare and AI, not water specifically, and its single water bet to date is sewer-inspection startup SewerAI. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
EPIC Ventures is one of Utah's oldest venture firms, writing its first cheques out of Salt Lake City back in 1994, before the state had much of a startup scene to speak of. As of August 2025 it told the world it had secured $200M of fresh capital to keep backing early-stage founders in software, healthcare and AI.
Water is not what EPIC Ventures does. In my Leviathan database, which logs every water raise I can find, EPIC shows up exactly once: SewerAI, a California startup that points machine learning at the CCTV footage utilities shoot inside their sewer pipes, turning hours of grainy video into a condition report. It is a generalist's single, well-chosen step into the unglamorous plumbing of water infrastructure.
EPIC Ventures invests the way a generalist does: early, at the seed and Series A stages (a company's first institutional cheques), then following its winners into later rounds. The firm has touched one water company across five tracked deals and led none of them, so for someone building in water EPIC reads as an occasional fellow-traveller rather than the lead. SewerAI is the tell for where a firm like this leans when it does wade in: software that makes old infrastructure legible rather than new hardware in the ground.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does EPIC Ventures invest in?
- EPIC Ventures invests broadly in early-stage technology, with a focus on software, healthcare and artificial intelligence rather than any single sector. Its water exposure is narrow: in the Leviathan database EPIC backs just one water company, SewerAI, which uses machine learning to inspect sewer pipes from CCTV video.
- What stage does EPIC Ventures invest at?
- EPIC Ventures invests early. It writes a company's first institutional cheques at the seed and Series A stages, then follows its winners into later rounds. The firm has operated this way from Salt Lake City since 1994, and in August 2025 announced it had secured $200M of fresh capital to keep doing so.
- Who runs EPIC Ventures?
- EPIC Ventures is led by co-founder and Managing Partner Nick Efstratis, alongside Managing Partner Jack Boren and Principal Craig Jeppson. Co-founder Kent Madsen, now Founding Managing Partner Emeritus, remains a Venture Partner. Several of the team came up through Utah's earlier Wasatch Venture Fund, which EPIC grew out of in the 1990s.
- Where is EPIC Ventures based?
- EPIC Ventures is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, where it has invested since 1994, making it one of the state's oldest venture firms. It backs founders across the Intermountain West and beyond. Note that an unrelated business-outsourcing company in India shares the EPIC Ventures name.
- Is EPIC Ventures a water-focused fund?
- No. EPIC Ventures is a generalist early-stage technology investor, not a water specialist. Its only water holding tracked by Leviathan is SewerAI, the sewer-inspection startup. (don't) Waste Water rates EPIC's overall water commitment Occasional, reflecting a single water company across five deals and no rounds led.