Bidra Innovation Ventures
Bidra Innovation Ventures is a $250M San Francisco venture fund backed by Morocco's phosphate giant OCP and its university UM6P. Bidra invests across agriculture, industrials, mining, water, and energy; (don't) Waste Water tracks two of its water bets, Aclarity and Tidal Metals, across two deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Bidra Innovation Ventures is the rare venture fund whose entire balance sheet traces to one industrial giant: OCP, the Moroccan group that holds the world's largest phosphate reserves, is its sole backer, alongside OCP's research university, UM6P. That parentage is the whole story. Bidra was set up in 2022 to find the technologies a phosphate and mining empire will need next, and it now runs $250 million across agriculture, industrials, mining, water, and energy.
Bidra is not a water fund, and that is exactly why its water bets are worth a newcomer's attention. Water sits inside a broader mandate, framed the way an industrial owner sees it: turning salty waste brine into something useful, recovering minerals, and managing the water that mining and fertilizer plants consume. (don't) Waste Water tracks two of those bets across two deals, both of them electrochemistry rather than the pipes and membranes most people picture when they hear water tech.
Bidra's two water bets read like a chemist's answer to a water problem. Aclarity uses electrochemical oxidation to destroy PFAS, the 'forever chemicals' that ordinary treatment only moves around rather than breaks apart, while Tidal Metals runs current through brine to recover magnesium, a metal whose supply is dominated by China. Both are early-stage spinouts turning lab chemistry into a company, the kind of technical, unglamorous bet a fund rooted in mining and fertilizer is built to underwrite.
Bidra shows a newcomer what water looks like through an industrialist's eyes: the chemistry of cleaning a waste stream or pulling a useful metal out of one, rather than the utilities and pipes most water funds chase. With $250 million and a single patient backer, Bidra can take the long, technical bets generalist funds skip, and water keeps surfacing wherever the chemistry of OCP's industrial world points.
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 · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Bidra Innovation Ventures invest in?
- Bidra Innovation Ventures invests in early and growth-stage startups across agriculture, industrials, mining, water, energy, and materials. It is not a water-only fund; within that mandate, (don't) Waste Water tracks two water bets, Aclarity, which destroys PFAS in water, and Tidal Metals, which recovers magnesium from brine.
- Who backs Bidra Innovation Ventures?
- Bidra Innovation Ventures is backed by a single Limited Partner, or sole investor in the fund: the OCP Group, the Moroccan phosphate and mining giant that holds the world's largest phosphate reserves. Bidra also runs in partnership with UM6P, OCP's applied-research university, which committed alongside it across 2022 and 2023.
- Who runs Bidra Innovation Ventures?
- Bidra Innovation Ventures is led by chief executive Yassine Cherkaoui, with Abhiram Kannan heading investments in industrials and mining, the vertical that covers its water and mineral-recovery deals. Principal Matt Foley and a small associate team across San Francisco and Morocco round out the investment group.
- Where is Bidra Innovation Ventures based?
- Bidra Innovation Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with a second base in Ben Guerir, Morocco, near its backer OCP and the UM6P university campus. Founded in 2022, Bidra deploys its $250 million globally rather than in any single region.
- Is Bidra Innovation Ventures a water fund?
- No. Bidra Innovation Ventures is a multi-sector fund spanning agriculture, industrials, mining, water, and energy, not a dedicated water investor. Water is one theme, reflecting its phosphate and mining backer OCP; (don't) Waste Water tracks the two water companies in its portfolio, Aclarity and Tidal Metals.