Collaborative Fund

Collaborative Fund runs every deal through a screen its founder Craig Shapiro calls the Villain Test: would a selfish villain still back this company if their only motive were profit? It is a generalist fund, writing cheques across consumer brands, climate, and technology, so the handful of water bets it has made are worth reading closely, because each one had to clear that for-profit-and-for-good bar.

Collaborative Fund's water bets sit at the edges, where water meets climate, energy, and risk rather than pipes and pumps. It has backed Wasted, a Vermont public-benefit company that diverts urine to recover fertiliser; Floodbase, which turns satellite data into parametric flood insurance; Solidec, which pulls chemicals and hydrogen out of water using electricity; and Cala Systems, a software-controlled heat-pump water heater. Four water companies across five rounds, from pre-seed to Series A.

Collaborative Fund routes these deals through its climate practice, led by partner Sophie Bakalar out of a dedicated climate fund, Collab SOS, that spans materials, energy, and supply chains. Water is never the headline thesis at Collaborative Fund; it shows up wherever a climate or consumer idea happens to touch it, which is why the portfolio reads more like a map of water's adjacencies than a utility's shopping list.

As of 2026 Collaborative Fund is still best known for consumer and culture, and founder Craig Shapiro has just raised a separate $250 million vehicle, Collab Holdings, to buy beloved consumer brands. But its climate fund keeps it an active, if selective, water investor. For a newcomer, it is the clearest case I track of water arriving through the climate door rather than the infrastructure one.