Bowery Capital
Bowery Capital is a New York early-stage venture capital firm that backs B2B software founders modernizing old industries. Water is a rare line in its book: as of 2026 the Leviathan database tracks one water company in its portfolio, the water-utility compliance-software maker Klir, across two funding rounds.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Bowery Capital is a B2B software fund first and a water investor almost by accident. Mike Brown Jr. started Bowery in 2013, fresh from co-founding AOL Ventures, on a simple bet: the next decade of value would come from founders dragging old industries onto modern software. Bowery built an in-house Acceleration Team of revenue and growth operators to push its portfolio companies toward early customers, and it has stayed in that vertical-software lane ever since.
Bowery's water story is essentially one name. The Leviathan database tracks a single water company across two rounds in Bowery's portfolio: Klir, which sells compliance and process-management software to water utilities. Klir is water as Bowery sees most things, as an unglamorous, regulation-heavy industry that still runs on spreadsheets and is long overdue for good software. It is a vertical-software bet that happens to point at water, not a thesis about water itself.
Bowery Capital is therefore worth filing as an occasional, opportunistic water backer rather than a water fund. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment One-Off, and its last tracked water deal dates to 2021. For a newcomer mapping who actually writes water cheques, Bowery belongs in the B2B-software column: the fund to know if your water company is really a software company wearing a hard hat, and a long shot otherwise.
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 Bowery Capital invest in?
- Bowery Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that backs B2B and vertical software founders, the kind modernizing old industries with technology. In water specifically Bowery is an occasional investor: the Leviathan database tracks one water company in its portfolio as of 2026, the water-utility compliance-software maker Klir.
- Does Bowery Capital invest in water?
- Bowery Capital does invest in water, but rarely. It has backed a single tracked water company, Klir, whose software helps water utilities manage permits, sampling, and compliance. With one water company across two rounds and no new water deal since 2021, (don't) Waste Water rates Bowery's water commitment One-Off.
- Who runs Bowery Capital?
- Bowery Capital was founded in 2013 by Mike Brown Jr., who co-founded AOL Ventures before it and serves as General Partner. The investment team also includes General Partner Loren Straub and Principal Patrick McGovern, backed by an Acceleration Team of revenue and growth operators who work with portfolio companies.
- Where is Bowery Capital based?
- Bowery Capital is headquartered in New York City, in the United States, with a second office in San Francisco. Founded in 2013, Bowery is an early-stage B2B software venture firm; in water it has backed one tracked company, the utility-software maker Klir.
- Is Bowery Capital the same as the Bowery real-estate appraisal startup?
- Bowery Capital here refers to the New York B2B software venture firm at bowerycap.com, founded by Mike Brown Jr. in 2013. It is not the separate New York proptech startup that shares the Bowery name and works in real-estate appraisal. This profile and its Klir water investment concern only the venture firm.