Berkeley Catalyst Fund
Berkeley Catalyst Fund is a Bay Area venture capital firm that backs science-heavy startups from the University of California ecosystem at Seed and Series A. Its water footprint runs through Water Harvesting, an atmospheric water-generation company whose board its co-founder Laura Smoliar chairs. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional as of 2026.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Berkeley Catalyst Fund reads like a chemistry faculty reunion that decided to write cheques. Two of its three founding partners, Ted Hou and Laura Smoliar, earned PhDs at UC Berkeley under Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee; the third, Drew Lanza, spent a decade as a general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. They started the fund in 2016 to turn University of California lab science into companies, working alongside Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and UCSF.
Berkeley Catalyst Fund is a generalist deep-tech investor. It writes Seed and Series A cheques, the earliest institutional rounds a startup raises, across life sciences, materials, sensors and clean technology, the kind of hard-science bets that need patient capital and a founder who can read a spectrometer. Water is one thread inside that wider cleantech mandate rather than the headline.
Berkeley Catalyst Fund's clearest water bet is Water Harvesting, a company building machines that pull drinking water straight out of the air, which matters most where pipes and aquifers have run dry. Laura Smoliar chairs its board, about as hands-on as a Seed investor gets. It is the one water company I can confirm in the portfolio, across two funding rounds, which is why the page treats Berkeley Catalyst Fund as an occasional, opportunistic water backer rather than a dedicated one.
Berkeley Catalyst Fund is worth knowing, for anyone newly mapping water investors, less for volume than for pedigree: a science-first fund with deep University of California roots that will write an early cheque when the underlying chemistry is real. If its water activity ever grows beyond Water Harvesting, this is a team equipped to underwrite the hard stuff.
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 · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Berkeley Catalyst Fund invest in?
- Berkeley Catalyst Fund backs early-stage, science-heavy startups from the University of California ecosystem, spanning life sciences, materials, sensors and clean technology. It invests at the Seed and Series A stages. Within water, its portfolio centers on Water Harvesting, a company that generates drinking water from air.
- Who runs Berkeley Catalyst Fund?
- Berkeley Catalyst Fund was founded in 2016 by three partners: Laura Smoliar and Ted Hou, both UC Berkeley chemistry PhDs trained under Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee, and Drew Lanza, a former general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures. Laura Smoliar chairs the board of portfolio company Water Harvesting.
- What stage and check size does Berkeley Catalyst Fund invest at?
- Berkeley Catalyst Fund invests at the Seed and Series A stages, the earliest institutional rounds a startup raises. Its disclosed cheques have ranged from roughly $2M to $8M, with a median near $5M. It typically joins rounds alongside other early backers rather than leading them.
- Is Berkeley Catalyst Fund the same as the Berkeley Catalyst Philanthropic Fund?
- No. Berkeley Catalyst Fund is a private venture capital firm that invests in startups for financial return. The similarly named Berkeley Catalyst Philanthropic Fund is a UC Berkeley College of Chemistry giving program. They share a Berkeley science heritage but are separate entities.
- How many water companies has Berkeley Catalyst Fund backed?
- Berkeley Catalyst Fund has backed one confirmed water company, Water Harvesting, across two funding rounds tracked in the Leviathan database. That places it among occasional water investors rather than dedicated water funds. Its broader portfolio spans life sciences, materials and clean technology beyond water.