EIT RawMaterials
EIT RawMaterials is the European Union's largest publicly backed innovation community for raw materials, headquartered in Berlin and running since 2015. EIT RawMaterials funds startups across the mining, processing and recycling value chain through grants and equity, and backs water technology where it helps recover or monitor critical minerals. As of 2026 it has supported 2 water companies.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
EIT RawMaterials sits inside the European Institute of Innovation and Technology as the EU's knowledge and innovation community for raw materials, the public machinery Europe built to stop depending on imports for the metals and minerals its factories run on. Since 2015 it has channelled around 600 million euros into more than 600 startups across the whole value chain, from mining and processing to recycling and substitution. EIT RawMaterials runs as a grant-and-equity engine for industrial sovereignty rather than a returns-driven venture fund.
EIT RawMaterials reaches water sideways, and that sideways angle is the whole story. The mandate funds water technology only where water and critical minerals meet: the process water inside a mine, the wastewater a metals refinery has to clean, the tailings streams you can mine for the minerals everyone else discards. Both of EIT RawMaterials' water bets are Finnish, and both are really mineral-recovery plays, which tells you exactly how this community thinks about water.
EIT RawMaterials keeps that pattern consistent. Sensmet builds online analysers that read dissolved metals in water in real time, sold into battery-metal plants, mines and industrial wastewater treatment. Sofi Filtration makes an ultrasound-cleaned filter that pulls ultra-fine particles out of water to recover more critical minerals from existing mines. Neither would headline a pure-play water fund's portfolio, yet both are precisely what a raw-materials fund means by water.
EIT RawMaterials is, for the right founder, a rare door. If your technology recovers, monitors or cleans the water bound up in mining, metals or recycling, EIT RawMaterials and its ERMA Booster programme offer some of the largest public funding in Europe, from early-stage grants through to larger project support. If your water has nothing to do with critical raw materials, this is the wrong door, and knowing that up front beats a vaguer fund that claims to back everything.
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.
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does EIT RawMaterials invest in?
- EIT RawMaterials backs startups, scale-ups and projects across the raw materials value chain: exploration, mining, processing, recycling and substitution of the critical metals and minerals Europe's industry depends on. Funding flows through grants and direct equity, and reaches water technology only where it serves critical-mineral recovery, monitoring or industrial water treatment.
- Does EIT RawMaterials fund water technology?
- EIT RawMaterials funds water technology selectively, where water overlaps with critical raw materials. Its two water companies, Finland's Sensmet and Sofi Filtration, both treat or monitor process and mine water to recover or measure metals. A water startup unconnected to mining, metals or recycling sits outside the EIT RawMaterials mandate.
- Who runs EIT RawMaterials?
- EIT RawMaterials is led by CEO and Managing Director Bernd Schäfer, from its headquarters in Berlin, Germany. The organisation is a Knowledge and Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, governed within the EU's innovation framework rather than by a private group of fund partners.
- Is EIT RawMaterials a venture capital fund?
- EIT RawMaterials is not a classic venture capital fund. EIT RawMaterials is an EU-funded innovation community that deploys public money through grants, calls and direct equity to strengthen Europe's raw materials supply, having channelled around 600 million euros into more than 600 startups since 2015 rather than raising capital from outside investors.
- How do startups get funding from EIT RawMaterials?
- EIT RawMaterials funds startups mainly through open calls such as the ERMA Booster programme, run with the European Raw Materials Alliance, alongside its Fast Track and innovation-project routes. Applicants in mining, processing, recycling and related raw-materials innovation apply through published calls with set ticket bands and recurring cut-off dates.