Google is a corporate venture capital (CVC) investor, the kind that backs startups off a parent company's balance sheet rather than a dedicated fund. In water it is an occasional player: it has backed two digital-water companies, utility-monitoring startup Varuna and flood-data platform Floodbase, both at seed stage in 2021, with no water deal since.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Google does not run a water fund, and the numbers show it. The company sits in (don't) Waste Water's Occasional commitment tier, with two water bets to its name and not a single round led. Both arrived inside one 2021 window, and the venture side has been quiet ever since.
Google's two water companies are both digital water, software that reads pipes and rivers rather than steel sunk in the ground. Varuna, a Black-led Austin startup, puts drinking-water monitoring into a utility dashboard; its founder Seyi Fabode moved into water after the Flint crisis and a 2018 flood swamped his own city. Floodbase, out of New York, turns satellite imagery into real-time flood maps for insurers. Google first reached Varuna through its Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, not a venture cheque.
Google and water, for most people, is not about either of those bets. It is the company's pledge to replenish more freshwater than its offices and data centers consume by 2030, an operations commitment that put back more than seven billion gallons in 2025. As of June 2026, that stewardship work, not venture capital, is where Google's water story actually lives.
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 Google invest in within water?
- Google has made only two water investments, both in 2021: Varuna, a utility water-monitoring platform, and Floodbase, a satellite flood-data company. Both are digital water, meaning software rather than treatment hardware. Google runs no dedicated water fund and has led neither round, sitting in an Occasional commitment tier.
- Is Google's water-positive pledge the same as investing in water?
- No. Google's goal to replenish 120% of the freshwater its offices and data centers consume by 2030 is an operational sustainability commitment, separate from venture investing. It replenished more than seven billion gallons in 2025. Google's actual water investments are just two seed-stage bets made back in 2021.
- How many water deals has Google done?
- Google has backed two water companies across two deals, both at the seed stage in 2021, Varuna and Floodbase, and it led neither. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Occasional. Google has recorded no new water investment since that 2021 window, despite its broad climate activity elsewhere.
- Who does Google co-invest with in water?
- In its two water deals, Google appeared alongside climate and seed investors including Lowercarbon Capital, Collaborative Fund, Corazon Capital, and Third Sphere. Because Google has not led a water round, it joins these syndicates as a participant rather than the price-setter, a sign of opportunistic rather than thesis-driven water exposure.