Gene Shelp
Gene Shelp is a Canadian water-sector founder and investor, best known as the co-founder and CEO of Current Water Technologies Inc., a Guelph, Ontario electrochemical water-treatment company once called ENPAR Technologies. In the Leviathan water database his investing footprint is insider backing of that one company, 3 deals since 1996.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Gene Shelp is not a fund. He is the scientist-operator behind Current Water Technologies Inc. (formerly ENPAR Technologies), the Guelph, Ontario company he co-founded and has run as President and CEO for roughly three decades. He earned a PhD in environmental geochemistry at the University of Guelph, holds more than 20 patents, and the company exists to commercialise the electrochemical water-treatment methods he spent a career building.
Current Water Technologies sells electrochemical systems, branded AmmEL and ESD, that pull ammonia, nitrate and dissolved metals out of water with electric current rather than dosed chemicals. The target markets are the unglamorous ones: mine water, metal-processing effluent, agricultural runoff and municipal wastewater. That is the slice of water Shelp keeps backing, because it is the slice he built.
Gene Shelp reads in the Leviathan water database as an Occasional investor rather than a venture firm: the three deals attributed to him are insider participations in Current Water Technologies' own share financings, not outside bets spread across a portfolio. It is the textbook founder-investor pattern, capital following conviction in a single technology.
As of May 2026, Current Water Technologies sits under a regulatory cloud: the Ontario Securities Commission issued a cease trade order and the TSX Venture Exchange suspended trading in its shares (ticker WATR), after the company missed the April 30, 2026 deadline to file its 2025 annual financial statements, blaming the unavailability of key staff. The company said it expected to finish the audit by the end of May; as of this writing the order had not been publicly revoked.
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.
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- Who is Gene Shelp?
- Gene Shelp is the co-founder, President and CEO of Current Water Technologies Inc., a Guelph, Ontario water-treatment company formerly named ENPAR Technologies. A geoscientist with a PhD from the University of Guelph, Shelp has led the company for roughly three decades and is named on more than 20 patents.
- What does Current Water Technologies do?
- Current Water Technologies develops electrochemical water-treatment systems, branded AmmEL and ESD, that remove ammonia, nitrate and dissolved metals from water using electric current instead of added chemicals. Its customers span mining, metal processing, agriculture, and municipal wastewater treatment.
- Is Gene Shelp a venture capital fund?
- No. Gene Shelp is an individual, not a fund. He appears in the Leviathan water-investment database because his tracked activity is insider backing of Current Water Technologies, the public company he runs, rather than outside venture investments spread across a portfolio of startups.
- Is Current Water Technologies publicly traded?
- Current Water Technologies trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol WATR. As of May 2026, however, the exchange suspended its shares after the Ontario Securities Commission issued a cease trade order over a late 2025 annual financial filing, which the company expected to resolve after completing its audit.