Mazarine Ventures
Mazarine Ventures is a Chicago-based venture capital firm built entirely around water. Founded in 2018, it backs early-stage companies tackling water and wastewater risk across utilities, industry, agriculture, real estate and finance. As of 2026 it has backed 6 water companies across 6 deals, and (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Anchor.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Where most of the water world reaches for the slogan 'water is life', Mazarine Ventures reaches for the colder version: water is a risk to be priced and managed. From its Chicago base the firm sorts every deal into four kinds of water risk: public health, the cost of moving and treating water, environmental damage, and business disruption.
Mazarine Ventures uses that risk lens to reach corners of water that flashier funds skip. Its portfolio runs from wastewater monitoring and electrochemical metal recovery to consumer water-testing kits and machine-learning for treatment plants, spread across utilities, industry, agriculture and property rather than one tidy niche. Mazarine writes its first cheques early, at pre-seed and seed, and backs its winners again as they prove the technology works.
Mazarine Ventures is really a small platform rather than a single fund: an in-house incubator (Mazarine Labs), early-stage funds, a growth-stage vehicle for climate-adaptation technology, and an impact arm called Bluehouse that aims water-monitoring tools at lower-income markets. Mazarine's co-founders came out of the water industry itself, several of them Nalco Water veterans, and partner John Robinson has spent years arguing that the sector's real opportunity hides in the unglamorous work of managing risk. That is the bet the whole platform keeps doubling down on.
Team · 3 profiled
On the show
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 · 6 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Mazarine Ventures invest in?
- Mazarine Ventures invests only in water. It backs early-stage companies that help customers manage water and wastewater risk, from utilities and industry to agriculture, real estate and finance, sorting every deal into four kinds of water risk: public health, cost, environmental damage and business disruption.
- What stage does Mazarine Ventures invest at?
- Mazarine Ventures invests early. It writes its first cheques mainly at pre-seed and seed, then follows on into the companies that prove their technology works. As of 2026 it has backed 6 water companies across 6 deals, and leads roughly a third of the rounds it joins.
- Who runs Mazarine Ventures?
- Mazarine Ventures was co-founded in 2018 by a team of water-industry veterans, among them John Robinson and Pete Nassos. Robinson, now based in London, is the partner most often heard making the firm's case that water is best understood as a risk to be managed, rather than only a cause to celebrate.
- Where is Mazarine Ventures based?
- Mazarine Ventures is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, where it was founded in 2018. The firm invests across North America and beyond, and co-founder John Robinson now works from London, but its base and roots remain in Chicago.
- Is Mazarine Ventures the same as Mazarine Energy?
- No. Mazarine Ventures is a Chicago water-focused venture capital firm founded in 2018. Mazarine Energy is a separate, unrelated oil and gas company based in the Netherlands. The two share only the name Mazarine, with no common ownership or business.