Mako Strategies
Mako Strategies is an Austin, Texas venture capital firm that backs seed and early-stage startups across energy, land use, mapping, and AI. Mako invests broadly rather than in water alone: the single water company (don't) Waste Water tracks is Infinity Water Solutions, an oilfield produced-water venture its founder runs as CEO. As of 2026 its water commitment rates One-Off.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Mako Strategies is an Austin venture firm that grew out of energy. Mike Dyson, a second-generation energy professional turned Texas attorney, founded it in 2019, and the makoenergy.group address still on its emails nods to that origin. The thesis has always been broad: seed and early-stage bets on how people use land and resources, from oilfield infrastructure and agribusiness to mapping software and real-estate AI.
Mako, for a newcomer, files under generalist early-stage capital more than water investing. Water reaches a firm like this through one good company rather than a dedicated fund, and here that company is Infinity Water Solutions, a venture tackling produced water: the salty water that surfaces alongside oil and gas and has to be cleaned, reused, or disposed of. Mako has backed Infinity across two rounds, a Seed and a Series A.
Mako's tie to that one bet runs unusually deep. Dyson does not merely sit on Infinity's board, he runs the company as its chief executive, which gives Mako real operating depth in produced-water reuse and also means the firm's water footprint and its founder's day job are the same wager. (don't) Waste Water rates Mako's water commitment One-Off, reflecting that single holding rather than a standing water thesis.
Mako Strategies, for a water founder reading this, is less a water fund than a well-connected Austin operator who happens to live inside the oilfield-water problem through Infinity. The water track record is one company deep, and the open question is whether Dyson's hands-on bet on produced water ever widens past a single line in a generalist portfolio.
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 Mako Strategies invest in?
- Mako Strategies backs seed and early-stage startups across energy, land use, agribusiness, mapping, and real-estate AI, with a broad land-and-resources thesis rather than a single sector. The one water company (don't) Waste Water tracks in its portfolio is Infinity Water Solutions, an oilfield produced-water venture in Texas.
- Who runs Mako Strategies?
- Mako Strategies was founded in 2019 by Mike Dyson, a second-generation energy professional and licensed Texas attorney who serves as its managing director. Dyson also leads the firm's one tracked water company, Infinity Water Solutions, as chief executive, and sits on the boards of Mako's portfolio companies.
- Is Mako Strategies a water investor?
- Mako Strategies is not a dedicated water investor. It is a generalist Austin venture firm whose single tracked water holding is Infinity Water Solutions, a produced-water company serving oil and gas. (don't) Waste Water rates Mako's water commitment One-Off as of 2026, reflecting that one bet rather than a standing water thesis.
- Where is Mako Strategies based?
- Mako Strategies is based in Austin, Texas, at the Cielo Center on South Capital of Texas Highway. Founded in 2019, the firm invests in seed and early-stage companies across the United States, with a portfolio weighted toward energy, land use, and infrastructure rather than a single region or sector.
- Is Mako Strategies the same as Mako Capital Group?
- No. Mako Strategies is the Austin, Texas early-stage venture firm founded by Mike Dyson. It is unrelated to Mako Capital Group, a separate private-equity firm focused on founder-led healthcare and financial-services businesses. They share only the Mako name.