ECBF
ECBF, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, is a Bonn-based growth-stage VC for Europe's bioeconomy. It backs agtech, food, biomaterials and bio-based chemicals, and reaches water through farming: two agtech holdings that help crops use less of it. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks two water-relevant companies across three deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
ECBF, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, was set up in 2020 by the European Investment Bank as the first venture fund in Europe dedicated entirely to the bioeconomy, the slice of the economy that makes useful things from biological material instead of fossil carbon. It closed at €300 million in 2022, oversubscribed against a €250 million target, with the EIB as its cornerstone backer. Water is not in its mandate, and yet two of its bets are the reason it turns up in a water database at all.
Both of those bets sit in farming, which is where ECBF's world and water quietly overlap. Elicit Plant makes foliar biostimulants from phytosterols that help crops such as maize and soy hold their yield on less water, a direct lever on agriculture's single biggest draw on freshwater. Weenat puts connected sensors in the field and turns soil and weather data into irrigation decisions, so a grower waters when the plant actually needs it rather than by the calendar. For ECBF, water is something you save by growing food more precisely.
Across ECBF's roughly 25-company portfolio, those two are the ones (don't) Waste Water tracks, spread over three deals, with the fund leading one of them. That is the honest shape of ECBF as a water investor: occasional, agtech-shaped, and always arriving through the food system rather than through pipes, membranes or treatment plants. The pattern is water as a by-product of agriculture rather than water as a thesis.
In March 2026, ECBF rebranded as ECBF VC and opened a permanent Paris office alongside its Bonn home base, with four of its portfolio companies now French. What I watch is whether water ever becomes more than an agtech side-effect here, or stays two good lines on a page about bio-based chemicals and materials. For now ECBF is a bioeconomy fund that happens to back the farms learning to grow more with less water.
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 · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does ECBF invest in?
- ECBF, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, backs growth-stage European companies in the bioeconomy: agtech, food and nutrition, bio-based chemicals, and biomaterials for packaging, textiles and construction. Its water exposure is indirect, through two agtech holdings, Elicit Plant and Weenat, that help farms grow more crop with less water.
- Is ECBF a water fund?
- No. ECBF is a bioeconomy venture fund, not a water fund, and water is not in its mandate. It reaches the sector only through agriculture, and (don't) Waste Water tracks two water-relevant agtech companies in its portfolio across three deals, rating its water commitment Occasional.
- Who runs ECBF?
- ECBF was founded in 2020 and is led by Co-Founder and General Partner Michael Brandkamp, the former founding managing director of High-Tech Gründerfonds. Fellow general partners Michael Nettersheim and Dirk Sassmannshausen co-founded the fund, alongside partners Marie Asano, who leads food and nutrition, and Isabelle Laurencin.
- Where is ECBF based?
- ECBF is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, and was established as a Luxembourg-domiciled fund by the European Investment Bank. In March 2026 it rebranded as ECBF VC and opened a permanent Paris office, reflecting how central France has become to its bioeconomy portfolio.
- How many water deals has ECBF done?
- (don't) Waste Water tracks two water-relevant companies in ECBF's roughly 25-company portfolio, Elicit Plant and Weenat, across three deals from Series A to Series C, with ECBF leading one round. Both are agtech bets that cut agriculture's water use rather than water-treatment businesses.