Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is the Bill Gates-founded climate venture fund that backs hard-to-finance clean-energy technology. Water enters through its decarbonization lens: lithium pulled from brine, atmospheric water panels, electrochemical water systems. As of 2026 it has backed 3 water companies across 8 deals, from Series A to Series D, on a patient 20-year horizon.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Breakthrough Energy Ventures is not a water fund, and that is the first thing a newcomer should know. Bill Gates launched it in 2016 out of the Breakthrough Energy coalition he convened around the Paris climate summit, on a simple, stubborn premise: the hardest climate technologies need patient, risk-tolerant money that ordinary venture capital will not write. Its backers read like a who's who of the ultra-wealthy, from Jeff Bezos to Jack Ma, and its declared horizon is twenty years, not the usual ten.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures reaches water sideways, through the carbon problem, the way every generalist climate fund does. Its water companies cluster on two threads. The first is lithium, where Lilac Solutions and Mangrove Lithium both pull the metal out of salty brine instead of evaporating it across desert ponds, a process whose economics turn on water chemistry and on the batteries the energy transition runs on. The second is water access itself: SOURCE Global makes solar hydropanels that condense drinking water straight out of the air. The connective tissue is water treated as climate infrastructure, not water for its own sake.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures backs these companies the way it backs fusion reactors and green steel, writing the first cheque and then more capital as the science crosses what the firm calls the commercialization valley of death. In my Leviathan database that adds up to 3 water companies across 8 deals, and BEV has led roughly half of those rounds, from Series A through Series D. For a newcomer the useful frame is this: Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a climate fund that owns a sharp slice of the water-and-critical-minerals story, not a water specialist, and it is one of the deepest-pocketed names in any water round it joins.
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 · 3 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Breakthrough Energy Ventures invest in?
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures invests in clean-energy and climate technology across electricity, manufacturing, transportation, buildings, and agriculture. Its water-related bets sit inside that mandate: lithium extracted from brine for batteries, and solar panels that pull drinking water from the air. Water is one thread in a broad decarbonization portfolio.
- Is Breakthrough Energy Ventures a water fund?
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures is not a dedicated water fund. It is a Bill Gates-founded climate venture firm where water shows up as a consequence of chasing carbon. Breakthrough Energy Ventures has backed 3 water companies across 8 deals, but most of its capital goes to energy, manufacturing, and industrial decarbonization.
- Who runs Breakthrough Energy Ventures?
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures was founded by Bill Gates in 2016 and is led by managing partner Rodi Guidero, who also serves as executive director of Breakthrough Energy. Carmichael Roberts co-leads the investment committee, and partners including Christina Karapataki and Chris Rivest source and lead its deals.
- How much has Breakthrough Energy Ventures raised?
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures has raised more than $3.5 billion in committed capital across its funds: roughly $1 billion in 2016, $1.25 billion in 2021, and $839 million for its third fund in 2024. It deploys that capital on an unusually long twenty-year horizon.
- Where is Breakthrough Energy Ventures based?
- Breakthrough Energy Ventures runs its investing team from Boston, Massachusetts, part of the wider Breakthrough Energy network founded by Bill Gates and headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. The fund backs United States and international climate startups, typically from Series A onward.