DCVC
DCVC is a San Francisco Bay Area deep-tech venture capital firm that backs computational, hard-science startups across climate, biology, and industry. DCVC's water bets target the hardest problems, from PFAS destruction to brine and advanced membranes, led by Operating Partner Earl Jones. As of 2026, DCVC has backed 5 water companies across 7 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
DCVC is a deep-tech investor first and a water investor second, and the order is the whole point. The Bay Area firm has spent since 2011 backing computational and hard-science founders going after trillion-dollar industries, and water is simply one of those industries. What makes the water work credible is who runs it: Earl Jones, an Operating Partner who was CEO of Heartland Water Technology and ran commercial water at GE before he started writing cheques.
DCVC's water portfolio reads like a tour of the problems nobody wants. ZwitterCo builds membranes that keep filtering water dirty enough to foul everything else; Aquafortus crystallises the brine that zero-liquid-discharge plants choke on; Aclarity runs an electric current through PFAS until the forever chemicals break apart; Tidal Metals pulls magnesium straight out of seawater. The thread is deep science aimed at the toughest, dirtiest water, not the easy municipal stuff.
Across five water companies and seven deals, DCVC has led most of the rounds it joined, which says it prefers to drive rather than ride along. For a firm whose own research argues that the most overlooked source of clean water is polluted water, that conviction tracks. DCVC is the kind of investor I watch to learn which hard water problems are finally becoming fundable.
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 DCVC invest in?
- DCVC backs early-stage deep-tech founders who use computational and hard-science approaches to transform giant industries, from climate and energy to biology, manufacturing, and water. In water, DCVC funds companies tackling wastewater treatment, PFAS destruction, desalination brine, advanced membranes, and recovering critical minerals from polluted water.
- How many water companies has DCVC backed?
- DCVC has backed 5 water companies across 7 deals, according to (don't) Waste Water's tracking: ZwitterCo, Aquafortus, Aclarity, Tidal Metals, and Biobot Analytics. (don't) Waste Water rates DCVC's water commitment Committed, and the firm has led most of the water rounds it has joined.
- Who leads water investing at DCVC?
- Earl Jones, an Operating Partner at DCVC, leads its water work. He was CEO of Heartland Water Technology and led commercial water at GE Water, and he co-founded the Northeast Water Innovation Network. At DCVC he focuses on deep-tech solutions for water availability, quality, and affordability.
- Where is DCVC based?
- DCVC is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in the United States, with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Founded in 2011 by Matt Ocko and Zachary Bogue, DCVC is a deep-tech venture capital firm managing around $4 billion across its funds.
- Is DCVC the same as DCVC Bio?
- No. DCVC is the deep-tech venture flagship founded in 2011, while DCVC Bio is its life-sciences affiliate focused on computational drug discovery and biology. The water investing described here sits in the core DCVC deep-tech funds, not DCVC Bio, and is led by Operating Partner Earl Jones.