ENGIE New Ventures
ENGIE New Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of French energy utility ENGIE, taking minority stakes in cleantech startups. Founded in 2014, it is an energy investor, not a water specialist, yet it has backed three water companies that sit where water meets energy. As of 2026 those bets span sludge-to-gas, wastewater treatment, and carbon removal.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
ENGIE New Ventures is the in-house investor of one of Europe's largest energy companies, and it reads exactly like that: a corporate venture fund built to spot the technologies its parent might one day buy, deploy, or learn from. Set up in 2014, it writes minority cheques, the kind that buy a stake without taking control, into cleantech startups across heating, cooling, carbon, and the digital plumbing of the grid. Water is not its headline; energy is.
So why does ENGIE New Ventures turn up in a water database at all? Because its three water bets all sit at the seam where water and energy meet. TreaTech turns sewage sludge into renewable gas, clean water, and mineral salts through catalytic hydrothermal gasification. CarbonBlue pulls carbon dioxide back out of water with a lime-based loop, and WASE runs containerised reactors that treat wastewater while harvesting the energy locked inside it. These are energy-transition companies that happen to breathe water, which is exactly the kind of bet an energy CVC makes.
ENGIE New Ventures is a fund a newcomer should file carefully: an energy investor with a steady, deliberate water habit, not a water fund. Across the decade it has backed three water companies in three deals, the most recent in 2024, usually coming in beside other strategic investors rather than chasing the round alone. To my eye the live question is whether the water-energy nexus keeps pulling it deeper. If decarbonising heat, cooling, and waste stays central to ENGIE's strategy, more water is likely to follow, because that is precisely where the next set of energy problems get wet.
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 · 3 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does ENGIE New Ventures invest in?
- ENGIE New Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of the French energy group ENGIE. Founded in 2014, it takes minority stakes in cleantech and energy-transition startups across heating, cooling, carbon removal, and digital energy. Water is a small but recurring theme, with three water companies in its portfolio as of 2026.
- Is ENGIE New Ventures a water fund?
- ENGIE New Ventures is not a dedicated water fund; it is an energy investor that backs water where water meets energy. Of the companies it has funded since 2014, three are in water, each chosen because it turns waste, wastewater, or carbon into something the energy transition can use.
- What water companies has ENGIE New Ventures backed?
- ENGIE New Ventures has backed three water companies. TreaTech turns sewage sludge into renewable gas and clean water, CarbonBlue removes carbon dioxide from water with a lime-based process, and WASE treats wastewater while recovering the energy inside it. All three sit squarely at the water-energy nexus.
- Who runs ENGIE New Ventures?
- ENGIE New Ventures is led by Managing Director Johann Boukhors, who heads corporate venture capital for the wider ENGIE group. The investment team includes directors Carlos A. Chalbaud, Vincent Pichon, and Laurent Rambaud, working from Paris with additional offices in Singapore, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv.
- What is the difference between ENGIE New Ventures and ENGIE?
- ENGIE is the French multinational energy utility; ENGIE New Ventures is its corporate venture capital arm, founded in 2014 to take minority stakes in startups. The parent runs power, gas, and infrastructure at global scale, while ENGIE New Ventures invests small cheques in the technologies that parent wants close to.