Capita3
Capita3 is a Minneapolis venture capital (VC) firm that backs women-led, early-stage startups transforming health and healthcare. Founded in 2016, its water footprint is a single but telling bet: Claros Technologies, a company that destroys PFAS 'forever chemicals'. As of 2026 it has backed 1 water company across 2 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Capita3 is a women-led health investor that almost nobody would file under water, which is exactly why its one water bet is worth a look. The Minneapolis firm backs early-stage founders building the future of health and healthcare, and it arrived at water the way a health investor would: through PFAS, the forever chemicals that turn up in drinking water and human blood alike. Capita3's water story is really a health story wearing different clothes.
Capita3's single water-tracked company is Claros Technologies, a fellow Minneapolis outfit spun out of University of Minnesota research that destroys PFAS rather than just filtering and relocating it. (don't) Waste Water tracks one Capita3 water company across two deals, and the fund has stayed with Claros across rounds rather than dabbling once and walking away. For a generalist health fund, that reads as genuine conviction in a hard-science water problem.
Capita3 runs on a bench of operator-investors, and the Claros relationship sits with Managing Partner Kathy Tune, who has said the firm 'believed in Claros from the very beginning'. Co-founders Pamela York, an electrical-engineering PhD, and Sara Russick, who also built the Gopher Angels network, anchor a fund that has spent years backing women founders in health. The water angle here is one partner's conviction, not a house thesis, and this page says so plainly.
Capita3 is not going to wake up tomorrow as a water fund, and it does not pretend to be one. But it is a useful reminder that some of the most consequential water technology arrives labelled as something else, in this case women's health and forever-chemical cleanup. The question worth watching is whether the PFAS conviction that pulled Capita3 onto Claros pulls it onto a second water company, or stays a single, well-chosen exception.
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 Capita3 invest in?
- Capita3 invests in early-stage, women-led startups transforming health and healthcare, spanning digital health and deep tech. Its water exposure is narrow but real: Capita3 backs Claros Technologies, a Minneapolis company that destroys PFAS 'forever chemicals', the single water company (don't) Waste Water tracks in its portfolio.
- Is Capita3 a water fund?
- Capita3 is a women-led health and healthcare fund, not a water fund. Water appears in its portfolio through one company, Claros Technologies, whose PFAS-destruction work sits where human health and water contamination overlap. (don't) Waste Water tracks 1 Capita3 water company across 2 deals.
- Who runs Capita3?
- Capita3 was co-founded in 2016 by Pamela York, an electrical-engineering PhD, and Sara Russick, who also built the Gopher Angels network, both Managing Partners. Kathy Tune, formerly of Thomas, McNerney & Partners, is the third Managing Partner and led Capita3's investment in PFAS company Claros Technologies.
- Where is Capita3 based?
- Capita3 is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a second office in San Francisco. Founded in 2016, the firm backs early-stage, women-led health startups across the United States, and several of its companies, including water-relevant Claros Technologies, are likewise rooted in Minnesota's deep-tech scene.
- Is Capita3 the same as Capita?
- Capita3 is the Minneapolis women's-health venture firm founded in 2016, written as one word with the numeral three. It is unrelated to Capita plc, the large UK outsourcing company, or to similarly named consulting and staffing firms. Capita3's focus is early-stage health, healthcare and, occasionally, water technology.