Aster Capital
Aster Capital is a Paris-based climate-tech venture-capital firm that backs hard-to-abate industrial sectors: energy, mobility, and manufacturing. It is not a water fund. (don't) Waste Water tracks two water-relevant bets, the industrial-cybersecurity firm Claroty and the simulation company Cosmo Tech, and as of 2026 rates Aster's water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Aster Capital began as the venture arm of Schneider Electric, the French electrical-equipment giant, and spent its first decade investing the parent's money before the team bought itself out and went independent around 2017. Today it is a climate-tech generalist that writes early cheques, roughly 500,000 to 5 million euros, into the hard-to-abate corners of the economy: power grids, factories, mobility, and chemicals.
Aster Capital is not a water fund, and a newcomer should file it under industrial climate tech, not water. Water reaches a generalist industrial investor at the edges of a bigger bet on infrastructure, not at the center. (don't) Waste Water tracks two water-relevant companies in Aster's book, both backed in 2018: Claroty, which guards the industrial control systems that run a water utility against cyberattacks, and Cosmo Tech, whose digital-twin software simulates complex networks, water systems among them.
Aster Capital's deepest water thread is older and more personal than the data card shows. Partner Fabio Lancellotti, who joined in 2010, has sat as a board observer on Atlantium, an Israeli company that disinfects water with ultraviolet light instead of chemicals, a bet Aster made back in 2013. For Aster, water is a recurring industrial curiosity rather than a thesis, one good company at a time, never a fund built around the problem.
Aster Capital, for a water founder, is a long shot with a specific shape: a generalist that looks at water when it sits inside a larger industrial or energy story, and that carries the corporate-network DNA, from its Schneider years, to open doors a pure-play fund cannot. The open question is whether its climate-tech turn pulls it back toward water more often than the once-every-few-years cadence its record shows.
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 Aster Capital invest in?
- Aster Capital is a climate-tech and deep-tech venture firm that backs early-stage startups in hard-to-abate sectors: energy, mobility, manufacturing, chemicals, and logistics. It is not a water specialist. The two water-relevant companies (don't) Waste Water tracks are Claroty and Cosmo Tech, both backed in 2018, and it rates Aster's water commitment Occasional.
- Is Aster Capital a water investor?
- No. Aster Capital has no water fund and no water thesis. Water reaches it at the edges of a broader bet on industrial infrastructure, in two holdings (don't) Waste Water tracks, Claroty and Cosmo Tech, plus an older 2013 stake in the water-treatment company Atlantium. Its water commitment is rated Occasional as of 2026.
- Who runs Aster Capital?
- Aster Capital is led from Paris by Managing Partner Jean-Marc Bally, who has been with the firm since its Schneider Electric days. The investment team includes Partner Fabio Lancellotti, Venture Partner Vincent Prêtet, and General Secretary and Partner Cécile Tirbonod, supported by a small finance and corporate-development staff.
- Where is Aster Capital based?
- Aster Capital is headquartered in Paris, France, with additional offices in San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv, and Nairobi. Founded in 2000 as the venture arm of Schneider Electric, it became an independent, multi-corporate climate-tech investor managing more than 500 million euros across Europe, North America, Israel, and Africa.
- Is Aster Capital the same as the Aster crypto token?
- No. Aster Capital is a Paris-based climate-tech venture firm spun out of Schneider Electric. It is unrelated to the Aster (ASTER) cryptocurrency token, to the China-focused investor at astercapital.com, and to Aster DM Healthcare. They share only the Aster name.