Envisioning Partners
Envisioning Partners is a Seoul-based impact venture capital firm that backs climate-tech and other mission-driven startups across Korea, the US and Southeast Asia. Its water exposure runs through carbon-and-water company Avnos and brine-recovery firm Aquafortus. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional, with two water deals tracked as of 2026.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Envisioning Partners is one of the clearest expressions of Korea's impact-investing coming of age. The firm was built in 2021 by people who had already done the work: Managing Partner Hyunjoo Je had run Yellowdog, one of Korea's first impact funds, and he was joined by Yong Hyun Kim, who walked away from running Hanwha Asset Management, a firm with tens of billions under management, to write smaller cheques that had to mean something. Envisioning Partners invests only in impact, a discipline most generalist funds treat as a side pocket.
Envisioning Partners spreads its capital across four impact domains, but climate technology is the heavyweight, with the rest in wellness, education and the future of work. It invests at Series A and Series B, writing roughly $1 to 5 million cheques to companies in Korea, the United States and Southeast Asia. In January 2024 it closed a second vehicle, the Envisioning Impact Solutions Fund, at 44 billion Korean won, about $37 million, on top of its $64 million debut climate fund from 2022.
Envisioning Partners keeps water as a thread inside that climate mandate rather than the headline, and the two water bets I can confirm in its portfolio show the pattern. Avnos builds direct-air-capture machines that are water-positive, producing clean water instead of guzzling it the way most carbon-capture rigs do. Aquafortus tackles the other end of the problem, pulling fresh water back out of the hypersaline brine that desalination and heavy industry leave behind, and doing it without the energy bill of boiling.
Envisioning Partners is worth knowing, for anyone newly mapping who funds water, less for volume than for the calibre of its bench: a team of ex-Carlyle, ex-Goldman and ex-Hanwha operators who chose to underwrite hard climate science with an impact lens. (don't) Waste Water rates it an Occasional water investor today, but if water keeps surfacing inside the climate deals it chases, this is a fund equipped to back it seriously.
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 Envisioning Partners invest in?
- Envisioning Partners invests in impact startups solving hard social and environmental problems, with climate technology making up the majority of its portfolio alongside wellness, education and future-of-work bets. It backs companies across Korea, the United States and Southeast Asia, and in water it has funded carbon-capture firm Avnos and brine-recovery company Aquafortus.
- Who runs Envisioning Partners?
- Envisioning Partners was founded in 2021 and is led by Managing Partners Hyunjoo Je, who previously ran the pioneering Korean impact fund Yellowdog, and Yong Hyun Kim, a former chief executive of Hanwha Asset Management. Partner June Cha, also formerly of Yellowdog, rounds out the senior investment team in Seoul.
- What stage and check size does Envisioning Partners invest at?
- Envisioning Partners invests mainly at Series A and Series B, the rounds where a startup scales a proven product, and has said it writes roughly $1 to 5 million cheques with room for follow-on. It typically joins rounds alongside other climate and impact investors rather than leading them.
- Is Envisioning Partners a water fund?
- No. Envisioning Partners is a broad impact and climate-technology investor, not a dedicated water fund. Water is one thread inside a wider climate mandate that also spans energy, materials, food and circular economy. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional, reflecting two tracked water investments rather than a water-first strategy.
- How many water companies has Envisioning Partners backed?
- Envisioning Partners has backed two water companies tracked in the Leviathan database, across two deals: Avnos, whose direct-air-capture system produces water rather than consuming it, and Aquafortus, which recovers water from hypersaline brine. Both sit inside its broader portfolio of dozens of climate and impact startups across Korea, the US and Singapore.