BlackNova
Black Nova Venture Capital is a Sydney-based, founder-led venture firm that backs early-stage Australian B2B software companies, not a water specialist. It writes early cheques from pre-seed to Series A across enterprise technology. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks a single water-relevant holding, the data-centre cooling startup Enaxiom, across two deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Black Nova Venture Capital was founded in Sydney in 2020 by Matt Browne and Darcy Naunton, two operators who had just sold their workplace-safety software company Donesafe and wanted to back the next wave of Australian founders with the scar tissue to prove they had done it themselves. Black Nova invests for founders, by founders, writing early cheques from pre-seed to Series A into B2B software and enterprise technology.
Black Nova is a generalist B2B technology fund, not a water investor, and it makes no claim to be one. Water reaches Black Nova sideways, through the energy bill of artificial intelligence: the data centres training today's AI models run hot, and cooling them is fast becoming one of the largest new industrial draws on fresh water. That is the door through which a Sydney software fund quietly ends up backing a water-technology company.
Black Nova's single water-relevant holding is Enaxiom, a Sydney deep-tech company founded in 2023 by Bijan Rahimi and Tia Collings and built on roughly a decade of research. Enaxiom's Hydrocool system cools data centres using non-potable and wastewater streams and recovers high-quality water as a by-product, sitting alongside liquid-cooling methods such as direct-to-chip and immersion rather than replacing them. Black Nova backed it next to Singapore's Epic Angels and the early-stage firm Antler. In all, (don't) Waste Water tracks one Black Nova water company across two deals.
Black Nova, for a water founder, is not a thesis-driven water fund but a fast, founder-friendly generalist that follows its B2B instincts into water only when the technology is really an enterprise or infrastructure play. The open question is whether data-centre water becomes a lane Black Nova invests in deliberately, or stays the one place its AI-infrastructure bets happen to touch the tap.
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
Frequently asked
- What does Black Nova Venture Capital invest in?
- Black Nova Venture Capital backs early-stage Australian B2B software and enterprise-technology startups from pre-seed to Series A. It is a generalist technology fund run by former founders, not a water specialist. Its only water-relevant holding tracked by (don't) Waste Water is the data-centre cooling startup Enaxiom.
- Is Black Nova Venture Capital a water fund?
- No. Black Nova Venture Capital is a Sydney B2B technology fund with no water mandate, no water team, and no water thesis. Water appears through a single portfolio company, Enaxiom, whose Hydrocool system cools data centres on non-potable water and recovers clean water as a by-product.
- Who runs Black Nova Venture Capital?
- Black Nova Venture Capital was co-founded in 2020 by managing partner Matt Browne and general partner Darcy Naunton, who had just exited their safety-software company Donesafe. The investment team also includes principal Joshua Farrugia and partner Nick Tonkin, backed by a wide venture-partner bench.
- Where is Black Nova Venture Capital based?
- Black Nova Venture Capital is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and invests predominantly in Australian founders. Founded in 2020, the firm runs a small core investment team supported by a broad bench of venture and operating partners across Australia and the United States.
- Is Black Nova Venture Capital the same as other 'Black Nova' companies?
- No. Black Nova Venture Capital is a Sydney early-stage B2B technology investor co-founded by Matt Browne and Darcy Naunton. It is unrelated to similarly named businesses such as Black Nova Designs or the BlackNova trading-card software project. They share only the name.