BMW i Ventures

BMW i Ventures is what happens when a century-old carmaker decides to invest like a Silicon Valley fund. Launched in 2011 and run independently from offices in Mountain View and Munich, it has backed more than 90 companies across manufacturing, transportation, supply chain and sustainability, with 30-plus exits behind it. As of April 2026 it closed a third fund of $300 million, taking its total to $1.1 billion under management, this one aimed squarely at physical and agentic AI for the auto industry.

BMW i Ventures has no water mandate, yet it keeps turning up in one corner of water, and it is a revealing one. Both of the water companies (don't) Waste Water tracks, Lilac Solutions and Mangrove Lithium, are really about getting lithium out of brine. The fund's water story is the electric-vehicle battery supply chain: the raw material that powers an electric BMW starts as salty water underground, and pulling it out cleanly is a water-chemistry problem.

BMW i Ventures backed both water companies through the same lens. Lilac Solutions uses ceramic ion-exchange beads to extract lithium directly from brine, skipping the sprawling evaporation ponds and heavy freshwater draw of conventional lithium mining, while Mangrove Lithium refines battery-grade lithium electrochemically from flexible feedstocks with far less water and waste. Scott Walbrun, the principal who worked both deals, is the closest thing BMW i Ventures has to a water lead, reaching water through clean tech and industrial materials rather than pipes and treatment plants.

BMW i Ventures rates as Committed in the (don't) Waste Water scoring, with 2 water companies across 3 deals to date. For a newcomer, it is a useful reminder that some of the most consequential water bets sit inside funds that would never call themselves water investors. Watch where its advanced-materials and circularity thesis points next, because that is where any future water-adjacent deal will come from.