Suir Valley Ventures (Sure Valley Ventures)
Sure Valley Ventures, also written Suir Valley Ventures, is an entrepreneur-led venture capital firm in London and Dublin backing UK and Ireland software startups in AI, the metaverse, and cybersecurity. It is not a water investor: in Leviathan its water record is a single One-Off, one company across two deals, the Irish water-monitoring startup Ambisense, backed in 2021.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Sure Valley Ventures is the fund two FeedHenry alumni built after their exit. Barry Downes and Brian Kinane sold the mobile-cloud company FeedHenry to Red Hat in 2014, then in 2017 turned investor, raising from Shard Capital and, in 2022, a £50m cornerstone from the British Business Bank to back early-stage software founders in the UK and Ireland. The thesis is software, not water: AI, the metaverse, and cybersecurity, the sectors the partners know from building and exiting their own companies.
Sure Valley Ventures shows up in my Leviathan water data exactly once, which is why (don't) Waste Water files it as a One-Off rather than a water investor. That single bet is Ambisense, an Irish company whose IoT sensors and cloud analytics monitor environmental and water quality, backed across two seed-stage deals (one company, two rounds) with the last in 2021, alongside Atlantic Bridge, Enterprise Ireland, and BGF.
Sure Valley Ventures is a real and active software investor, just not a water one. Its track record sits in AI and cyber: in 2025 it sold the AI data-security company GetVisibility to the US security group Forcepoint, and its portfolio runs to corporate-metaverse and AI names like Engage XR and Smarttech247. Water has never been a theme here, only an adjacency that Ambisense happened to sit inside.
For an impact-curious investor scanning water funds, Sure Valley Ventures is a useful marker, not a destination. If you want a water-focused fund, this is not it, but it is proof that mainstream AI and software capital occasionally reaches into water monitoring when the technology is strong enough to stand on its own.
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 · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Sure Valley Ventures invest in?
- Sure Valley Ventures invests in early-stage software companies across the UK and Ireland, focusing on artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and cybersecurity. It is an entrepreneur-led firm, founded in 2017 by former software founders, that backs startups from the seed stage onward. Water is not a focus; it has touched the sector only once.
- Is Sure Valley Ventures a water fund?
- No. Sure Valley Ventures is a generalist UK and Ireland software venture capital firm, not a water investor. On (don't) Waste Water's scale it rates a One-Off, meaning it has backed a single water-related company, the Irish monitoring startup Ambisense, rather than building any dedicated water thesis or portfolio.
- Who runs Sure Valley Ventures?
- Sure Valley Ventures is led by Managing Partner Barry Downes and Founding Partner Brian Kinane, who together built and sold the mobile-cloud company FeedHenry to Red Hat in 2014. The investment team also includes Venture Partners Gareth Burchell, DC Cahalane, and John Frizelle, who is also the firm's CTO.
- Where is Sure Valley Ventures based?
- Sure Valley Ventures operates from London and Dublin, with a further presence in Cambridge and Cork, and invests across the UK and Ireland. Founded in 2017, it draws backing from Shard Capital and a cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank's Enterprise Capital Funds programme.
- Is Sure Valley Ventures the same as Suir Valley Ventures or Sure Ventures?
- Largely yes on the first. Sure Valley Ventures is the venture capital firm, sometimes mis-spelled Suir Valley Ventures in databases, including this one. Sure Ventures PLC is a separate London-listed vehicle that channels public investors into Sure Valley's funds. The operating fund and team are Sure Valley Ventures.