Connect the Drops
Connect the Drops is a Dutch, water-focused venture capital (VC) fund based in Gouda, Netherlands. It backs early-stage startups across drinking water, agriculture, wastewater, and water management, pairing capital with networks to help them scale. As of 2026 it has backed 5 water companies.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Connect the Drops is one of the youngest water funds (don't) Waste Water tracks, founded in 2024 in Gouda, in the Dutch province of South Holland. Its founder, Jan Otto Ooms, came to water from heavy industry, building his career at Otolift, the Dutch stairlift manufacturer, before deciding to put capital behind water technology instead. The result is a small, hands-on fund that invests only in water, across drinking water, agriculture, wastewater, and the broader business of managing it.
Connect the Drops backs companies at the earliest institutional stage, pre-seed and seed, the first outside cheque a startup takes. The pattern across its portfolio is a clear preference for hardware that makes water out of difficult conditions: solar-powered desalination that turns seawater into drinking water, air-to-water systems that pull moisture from the atmosphere, wave-driven desalination, modular rainwater capture, and sensors that listen to pipe networks. It is a bet on physical water-tech, not software, aimed at places where clean water is scarce.
Connect the Drops describes itself as going beyond funding, adding strategic guidance and a network of partners to the cheque, the kind of practical help a tiny team in Gouda can give a founder that a larger fund rarely bothers with. That networks-plus-capital model is the whole pitch: connect bold ideas, technologies, and entrepreneurs to fast-track scalable water solutions, one drop at a time.
Connect the Drops also doubles down on the companies it already backs. As of June 2026, its most recent move was reinvesting in SolarDew, the solar-distillation startup already in its portfolio, in a round it backed alongside the regional development company Oost NL. For a newcomer, Connect the Drops is worth watching as a rare pure-play water investor at the earliest, riskiest stage, where a small specialist with operating scars can sometimes spot what generalist climate money moves too slowly to see.
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 · 5 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Connect the Drops invest in?
- Connect the Drops invests in early-stage water technology startups across drinking water, agriculture, wastewater, and water management. Its portfolio leans toward physical hardware, including solar-powered desalination, air-to-water generation, wave-driven desalination, rainwater reuse, and pipe-network sensors, rather than software.
- Who runs Connect the Drops?
- Connect the Drops was founded in 2024 by Jan Otto Ooms, who serves as its CEO. Ooms built his career in Dutch manufacturing at the stairlift maker Otolift before moving into water-impact investing. The fund runs as a small, hands-on team based in Gouda, Netherlands.
- Where is Connect the Drops based?
- Connect the Drops is based in Gouda, in the South Holland province of the Netherlands. It is a Dutch venture capital (VC) fund founded in 2024, and it invests in water startups internationally, reaching underserved markets where clean drinking water is scarce.
- Is Connect the Drops a water-only fund?
- Connect the Drops is a pure-play water fund, meaning it invests only in water-related technology and nothing else. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment at the highest 'Anchor' tier, and as of 2026 it has backed 5 water companies at the pre-seed and seed stage.
- Is Connect the Drops the same as the water-conservation campaign?
- No. Connect the Drops is a Dutch venture capital fund, founded in 2024 in Gouda, that invests in early-stage water startups. It should not be confused with the similarly named water-awareness and conservation campaigns; this profile covers the investment fund tracked in (don't) Waste Water's water-investor database.