Kindred Capital
Kindred Capital is a London-based, early-stage venture capital (VC) firm founded in 2015 that backs pre-seed and seed startups across sectors. It is best known for 'equitable venture,' a model that makes every founder it funds a co-owner of the fund. In water, it has backed PFAS-removal company Puraffinity.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Kindred Capital runs one of the more genuinely unusual deals in European venture: every founder it backs becomes a co-owner of the fund itself, sharing in the carried interest the partners earn across the whole portfolio. Kindred calls it 'equitable venture,' and it has been the firm's signature since Leila Zegna and Tracy Doree started it in London in 2015.
Kindred is a generalist, not a water fund. It writes the first institutional cheques, pre-seed and seed (the earliest, riskiest rounds, before a startup has much revenue) across software, techbio, fintech and infrastructure. Its $130 million third fund, closed in early 2023, leans roughly seventy percent pre-seed, and the partnership stays deliberately small: a handful of general partners, no associates, so a founder only ever meets a decision-maker.
Kindred's one water bet is Puraffinity, the London company building bio-based media that strips PFAS 'forever chemicals' out of water, with a stated goal of reaching a billion people by 2030. Kindred joined Puraffinity's Series A alongside water specialists like HG Ventures and Verve Ventures, which is why it lands in my Leviathan database with a single high-conviction water deal rather than a water thesis.
Kindred is best read as a sector-agnostic early-stage investor that happens to hold an important PFAS-removal company, not as a dedicated water fund. (don't) Waste Water rates Kindred's water commitment Occasional for that reason: when a water company fits its founder-aligned, pre-seed-to-seed model it will write the cheque, but water is not the lens it leads with.
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 · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Kindred Capital invest in?
- Kindred Capital backs pre-seed and seed startups across sectors, from software and techbio to fintech and infrastructure, writing the first institutional cheques from its London base. It is a generalist early-stage fund, not a water specialist, though its portfolio includes water company Puraffinity.
- What is Kindred Capital's 'equitable venture' model?
- Kindred Capital pioneered 'equitable venture,' under which every founder it funds becomes a co-owner of the fund and shares in the carried interest the partners earn across the whole portfolio. The model has defined the London firm since it launched in 2015.
- Who runs Kindred Capital?
- Kindred Capital is a partner-only firm led by founding general partner Leila Zegna, alongside general partners Mark Evans, Chrys Chrysanthou and John Cassidy. It keeps no associates or analysts, so founders deal directly with a decision-maker on every investment.
- How many water deals has Kindred Capital done?
- Kindred Capital has made two water deals into a single company, Puraffinity, which removes PFAS 'forever chemicals' from water. In (don't) Waste Water's data it rates as an Occasional water investor, since water is a small, opportunistic part of its generalist book.
- Is Kindred Capital the same as Kindred Ventures?
- No. Kindred Capital is a London early-stage VC founded in 2015. Kindred Ventures is a separate San Francisco firm, and Kindred is also the name of an unrelated home-swapping startup. Only the London Kindred Capital backed water company Puraffinity.