CIT GAP Funds
CIT GAP Funds is the seed-stage venture arm of the U.S. state of Virginia, now run as Virginia Venture Partners. Under the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, it backs Virginia technology, life science, and clean energy startups, and as of 2026 its water record is one company: the vortex wastewater firm Micronic Technologies, backed across two seed rounds.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
CIT GAP Funds is the seed-stage investment arm of the U.S. state of Virginia, which means public money goes into very young companies the way a private venture capitalist would, with the Commonwealth itself as the investor. Since late 2021 the program has run under a new name, Virginia Venture Partners, after its parent agency rebranded from the Center for Innovative Technology to the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, so the CIT GAP Funds you may be searching for and Virginia Venture Partners are the same money under a fresh badge.
CIT GAP Funds backs a broad mandate: Virginia-based technology, life science, and clean energy startups at the seed stage, which is the very first institutional cheque a founder takes. Water sits in the clean energy and cleantech corner of that mandate, and in my Leviathan data it is a thin slice, one water company across two seed deals, which is why (don't) Waste Water files the fund as a One-Off on water rather than a dedicated water investor.
CIT GAP Funds made just one water bet, and it is worth knowing because the engineering is genuinely strange. The company, Micronic Technologies out of Bristol, Virginia, built a wastewater treatment device that spins dirty water into a tornado-like vortex and shears it into a fine mist, pulling the clean water off as vapour and leaving the contaminants behind, with no membranes, no filters, and no chemicals. CIT GAP Funds came in at the seed round alongside The Pearl Fund and a Virginia angel group, the kind of in-state, very-early money a state fund exists to provide.
CIT GAP Funds, now Virginia Venture Partners, reads best as an economic-development tool first and a water investor barely at all, writing small early cheques to keep promising science inside Virginia. If you are hunting for a water-focused fund, this is not the one, but it is a useful marker of where public, in-state seed capital has quietly touched the sector.
Team · 1 profiled
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 CIT GAP Funds invest in?
- CIT GAP Funds, now Virginia Venture Partners, makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, life science, and clean energy startups. It is a state-backed program of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, so its mandate is economic development inside the Commonwealth rather than any single sector like water.
- Is CIT GAP Funds the same as Virginia Venture Partners?
- Yes. Virginia Venture Partners is the current name of CIT GAP Funds, renamed in late 2021 when its parent, the Center for Innovative Technology, became the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC). The funds, team, and Virginia seed-stage mandate carried over unchanged under the new branding.
- How many water companies has CIT GAP Funds backed?
- CIT GAP Funds has backed one water company, Micronic Technologies, across two seed rounds, the most recent in 2020. On (don't) Waste Water's scale that makes it a One-Off in water, a generalist state seed fund that has touched the sector once rather than a dedicated water investor.
- Who runs CIT GAP Funds?
- CIT GAP Funds, now Virginia Venture Partners, is led by Tom Weithman, Chief Investment Officer of VIPC and Managing Director of the fund, who has built the Commonwealth's seed-investment program since the mid-2000s. It sits inside the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, the state's innovation and entrepreneurship agency.
- Where is CIT GAP Funds based?
- CIT GAP Funds, now Virginia Venture Partners, is based in Herndon, Virginia, the home of its parent Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, and it invests only in companies based in the U.S. state of Virginia. That in-state focus is the defining rule of the program.