IP Group
IP Group is a London-listed science and technology investor backing early-stage university spinouts across healthtech, deeptech and cleantech. Water is a small slice of that mandate, surfacing in cleantech bets like ElectraLith's membrane lithium extraction and 8power's sensors. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies across 3 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
IP Group spent two decades turning lab science into listed companies, and as of March 2026 it is still writing fresh cleantech cheques: it reached a first close on the IP Group Climate Catalyst Fund, a vehicle targeting up to A$150m built with Australia's government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The fund hunts the hard, physical end of decarbonisation, from industrial heat and mineral processing to grid balancing, the same deep-science territory where IP Group's water bets live.
IP Group started in 2001 commercialising research out of UK universities, and water is a niche thread inside its much larger cleantech book rather than a standalone strategy. Its water-relevant bets sit at the chemistry-and-membrane layer, not the utility layer: ElectraLith, spun out of Monash University, uses a membrane process to pull lithium from brine without the water and chemicals that conventional extraction guzzles, and 8power, a Cambridge spinout, makes self-powered sensors that watch over infrastructure like pipe networks.
IP Group's water-adjacent story is geographic as much as technical: the most interesting deals run through its Australian arm, where founding member Alistair McCreadie steers the cleantech book alongside partners like Monash University and Rio Tinto. That is where IP Group's water story actually gets made, a long way from its Walbrook headquarters in the City of London.
IP Group is the case study in how water reaches a generalist deep-tech investor: through the materials science underneath cleaner mining and smarter infrastructure, rather than through a dedicated water fund. The question worth watching is whether water graduates from a footnote to a named focus area as the new climate fund deploys, or stays the quiet thread it has been since 2001.
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 IP Group invest in?
- IP Group invests in early-stage science and technology spun out of universities, across three areas: healthtech, deeptech and cleantech. Its water-relevant work sits inside cleantech, where it has backed companies such as ElectraLith and 8power. (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 of its water companies across 3 deals.
- Is IP Group a water fund?
- IP Group is a broad London-listed science investor, not a water-only fund. Water is a small slice of its cleantech activity, alongside areas like industrial decarbonisation, mineral processing and grid balancing. Within that slice it has backed 2 water companies across 3 deals, according to (don't) Waste Water.
- Who runs IP Group?
- IP Group is led by chief executive Greg Smith, who took the role in 2021. Its water-relevant deals run largely through IP Group Australia, where founding member Alistair McCreadie serves as chief investment officer for Asia Pacific and steers the firm's cleantech bets in the region.
- Where is IP Group based?
- IP Group is headquartered in the City of London, at the Walbrook Building, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker IPO. It also runs a sizeable Australian operation, IP Group Australia, which sources many of its cleantech and water-adjacent investments.
- Is IP Group the same as Interpublic Group (IPG)?
- No. IP Group is a London-listed science and technology investor, ticker IPO, that commercialises university research. It is unrelated to Interpublic Group (IPG), the New York advertising holding company, and to generic uses of 'IP' meaning intellectual property or internet protocol.