Cultivation Capital
Cultivation Capital is a St. Louis venture firm that backs technology, life sciences, agtech, and geospatial startups. Its single water bet is Hydrosat, a thermal-satellite company mapping water stress and crop risk from orbit. As of 2026, Leviathan tracks one water company across four deals and rates its water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Cultivation Capital launched in 2012 when a group of St. Louis entrepreneurs, led by cofounders Brian Matthews, Cliff Holekamp, and Kyle Welborn, decided the Midwest could grow its own venture firm rather than wait for coastal money. It is a generalist, investing across software, life sciences and health, agriculture, and geospatial technology. Water has never been a fund of its own here; it arrives through the geospatial door.
Cultivation Capital's one tracked water company shows how water turns up in a generalist book. Hydrosat flies thermal infrared satellites that read the temperature of the ground, the clearest early signal of plant water stress, and turns that into crop and irrigation analytics for farmers and agencies. Cultivation Capital backed Hydrosat from its earliest days and has stayed in as the company has grown. For a firm with deep geospatial roots, a water company you can see from orbit is a natural fit, not a detour.
Cultivation Capital's geospatial conviction is not the accident of a single deal. Cofounder Brian Matthews spends his time with software and geospatial founders, and the bench includes general partner Andy Dearing, who ran the geospatial startup Boundless Spatial before Planet Labs acquired it, plus SparkGeo founder Will Cadell as a venture advisor. That is an unusually deep geospatial roster for a regional fund, and it is the lens through which Cultivation Capital finds water.
Cultivation Capital is not a water specialist, and the numbers say so plainly. Leviathan tracks one water company across four deals, the firm leads roughly a quarter of the rounds it joins, and it rates the water commitment Occasional. Expect any future water bet to look like Hydrosat: a geospatial or agtech company where measuring water is a feature, not the mission.
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 Cultivation Capital invest in?
- Cultivation Capital is a St. Louis generalist venture firm backing early-stage software, life sciences and health, agriculture, and geospatial technology companies, usually at seed and Series A. Within water, Leviathan tracks a single company, Hydrosat, whose thermal satellites measure water stress and crop conditions from orbit.
- Is Cultivation Capital a water-focused fund?
- Cultivation Capital is not a water-focused fund. It is a broad early-stage investor, and water appears only through its geospatial and agtech work. Leviathan tracks one water company, Hydrosat, across four deals and rates the firm's water commitment Occasional rather than a dedicated water strategy.
- Who runs Cultivation Capital?
- Cultivation Capital was cofounded in 2012 by Brian Matthews, Cliff Holekamp, and Kyle Welborn, who remain general partners. Its geospatial bench, the practice closest to its water work, includes general partner Andy Dearing, former CEO of geospatial startup Boundless Spatial, and SparkGeo founder Will Cadell as a venture advisor.
- Where is Cultivation Capital based?
- Cultivation Capital is based in St. Louis, Missouri, with a second office in Greenville, South Carolina. It deliberately backs startups in the American Midwest and beyond, rather than concentrating on the coastal hubs of Silicon Valley and New York.
- Is Cultivation Capital a cannabis or farming fund?
- No. Despite its name, Cultivation Capital is a technology venture firm, not a cannabis-cultivation or agriculture-only investor. The name reflects its mission of cultivating St. Louis startups. Its agtech and water exposure, including Hydrosat, sits inside a broader software, life sciences, and geospatial portfolio.