Alumni Ventures
Alumni Ventures is America's largest venture capital firm for individual investors, a generalist backing startups across every sector. Founded in 2014 by Mike Collins and based in Manchester, New Hampshire, it gives accredited investors access to venture portfolios. Water is a small slice of its 1,600-plus companies; as of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 water investments.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Alumni Ventures was built to solve a problem most people never get to have: how an ordinary accredited investor, not a pension fund or a billionaire, can own a piece of venture capital. Mike Collins started the firm in 2014 after a career that ran from the investment shop TA Associates to founding his own toy and product companies, and his pitch was simple, open the asset class up. Today Alumni Ventures is the most active venture firm in the United States by deal count, channeling money from more than 11,000 individual investors into well over a thousand startups.
Alumni Ventures runs two kinds of funds: alumni funds tied to specific university networks, like Dartmouth's Green D or Harvard's Yard Ventures, and focused funds that chase a theme such as deep tech, AI, or climate. Water is not one of those themes. The handful of water companies Alumni Ventures has backed arrived through its broad climate and agriculture activity rather than a dedicated water mandate, which is why (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional.
Alumni Ventures' two tracked water deals both sit at the food-and-agriculture edge of the sector. Alumni Ventures backed Arable Labs, whose in-field sensors help farmers read weather, crops, and soil moisture so they can irrigate with data instead of habit, and Hyfe, which uses membrane separation to turn food-manufacturing wastewater into usable ingredients. In both, Alumni Ventures invested alongside climate specialists such as Prelude Ventures and Engine Ventures.
What I watch with Alumni Ventures is whether water ever graduates from a by-product of its climate deals into something deliberate. The firm has the deal volume and the thematic-fund machinery to spin up a water-adjacent sleeve if it ever wanted one, but for now water is a quiet two-name footnote inside one of the largest portfolios in American venture.
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 Alumni Ventures invest in?
- Alumni Ventures invests as a generalist across technology, healthcare, AI, climate, and consumer startups, from seed to growth stage. It builds diversified venture portfolios for individual investors rather than concentrating on one sector. Within water, (don't) Waste Water tracks two holdings, the farm-sensor company Arable Labs and the wastewater-upcycling company Hyfe.
- Is Alumni Ventures a water fund?
- Alumni Ventures is not a water fund. It is America's largest venture capital firm for individual investors, a generalist whose water exposure comes through its climate and agriculture deals. (don't) Waste Water tracks two of its investments as water companies and rates its overall water commitment Occasional.
- Who runs Alumni Ventures?
- Alumni Ventures was founded in 2014 by Mike Collins, a Dartmouth engineer and Harvard MBA who previously invested at TA Associates. He remains chief executive, working with managing partners including Laura Rippy and a team of more than forty full-time investors across the firm's alumni and focused funds.
- Where is Alumni Ventures based?
- Alumni Ventures is headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States, with additional offices and investing teams across the country. Founded in 2014, it invests nationally and globally on behalf of more than 11,000 individual and institutional investors rather than from a single regional base.
- How does Alumni Ventures work for individual investors?
- Alumni Ventures lets accredited individual investors put money into professionally managed venture funds with a relatively low minimum, historically around 10,000 dollars. It pools that capital into diversified portfolios of startups and also offers deal-by-deal syndicates, opening up venture capital that was once limited to institutions.