Mercuria
Mercuria Energy Group is a Geneva-based commodity trading house and one of the world's largest strategic corporate investors in the energy transition. Its water-relevant bet is direct lithium extraction, the brine-to-lithium technology that uses far less water than old evaporation ponds. As of 2026 it has backed one water company, Lilac Solutions, across two rounds.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Mercuria Energy Group is one of the world's largest independent commodity trading houses, moving oil, gas, metals and power across more than 50 countries from its base in Geneva. Co-founders Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi have traded together for close to forty years, and over the past decade they have pointed a growing share of the firm's balance sheet at the energy transition. Water enters that story through the critical minerals the transition runs on.
Mercuria's one water-relevant holding in my Leviathan database is Lilac Solutions, a company built around direct lithium extraction, or DLE. The old way to get lithium is to pump salt brine into vast evaporation ponds and wait, which is both slow and thirsty. Lilac's ion-exchange beads pull the lithium straight out of the brine instead, cutting the water and land a lithium project needs. For a trader that wants to own the battery-metal supply chain, that is where water and commodities meet.
Mercuria's point person here is Brian Falik, its Chief Investment Officer for the Americas, who steered the firm into Lilac and took a board seat. Across two rounds, Mercuria has backed that single water company alongside investors like Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital and Mitsubishi. One water bet across two deals makes Mercuria an occasional water investor rather than a specialist, and this page is honest about that.
Mercuria deepened the direction in July 2025, when it and its founders announced a strategic partnership with S2G Investments aimed at energy modernization, resource innovation and nature-based climate solutions, tied to Silvania, the firm's natural-climate-solutions platform. The water thesis is one branch of a much larger energy-transition bet, and worth watching as that bet grows.
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 Mercuria Energy Group invest in?
- Mercuria Energy Group is a Geneva-based commodity trading house that invests across the energy transition, from renewables and power to critical battery metals. In water, Mercuria backs direct lithium extraction, a brine-to-lithium technology, through its holding in Lilac Solutions.
- Is Mercuria Energy Group the same as Mercuria Investment in Japan?
- No. Mercuria Energy Group is the Geneva commodity trader founded in 2004 by Marco Dunand and Daniel Jaeggi. Mercuria Holdings, also called Mercuria Investment, is a separate Tokyo-listed alternative-investment manager. They share a name but are unrelated firms.
- Who runs Mercuria Energy Group?
- Mercuria Energy Group is led by co-founders Marco Dunand, its CEO, and Daniel Jaeggi, its President, who have traded commodities together for nearly forty years. Its investment activity in the Americas, including the Lilac Solutions deal, is run by Chief Investment Officer Brian Falik.
- Why is a commodity trader like Mercuria investing in water?
- Mercuria invests in water because the energy transition runs on critical minerals. Its stake in Lilac Solutions backs direct lithium extraction, which pulls lithium from salt brine using far less water and land than traditional evaporation ponds, linking battery supply to water technology.
- How many water deals has Mercuria done?
- As of 2026, Mercuria Energy Group has backed one water company, Lilac Solutions, across two funding rounds in Leviathan's data. That makes Mercuria an occasional water investor rather than a specialist, with its single bet focused on lithium extraction technology.