NEW-TTT
NEW-TTT (Netherlands Enabling Watertechnology) is a Dutch publicly-backed fund that writes first cheques for early-stage water-technology startups. Run from the WaterCampus in Leeuwarden, it backs pre-seed companies in water treatment, reuse, and smart water management. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
NEW-TTT is one of the rare water funds that exists because a government decided water technology needed patient money. In March 2021 the Dutch state awarded the Netherlands Enabling Watertechnology consortium an 8 million euro Thematic Technology Transfer grant, splitting it into a knowledge-transfer subsidy and a roughly 5 million euro loan that became a fund for startups. It is public money with a private-market job: turn lab breakthroughs into companies.
NEW-TTT sits on the WaterCampus in Leeuwarden, the cluster that has made the north of the Netherlands an unlikely water-tech capital. Its backers read like a roll-call of Dutch water science: the research institutes Wetsus, Deltares, and the University of Groningen supply the technical judgment, while the regional development agency NOM runs the cheque-book. That pairing is the whole pitch, scientists who can tell which membrane or sensor actually works, sitting next to investors who can fund it.
NEW-TTT backs the earliest stage, pre-seed, the point before a company has revenue, where most investors will not go. It writes convertible loans, a flexible early instrument that turns into equity in a later round, into water-treatment, water-reuse, energy-from-water, and smart-monitoring startups, often university spin-offs with a patent and little else. The two companies it has backed so far, IonIQs and Solaq, fit the mould: one pulls valuable ions out of water with an electromembrane, the other pulls drinking water out of thin air.
NEW-TTT runs on a clock, the programme is funded through 2027, which makes it a deliberately finite experiment in whether public seed money can grow a water-tech industry from the lab up. For founders too early for a typical venture fund, it is one of the few doors in Europe that opens that far upstream.
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
Frequently asked
- What does NEW-TTT invest in?
- NEW-TTT invests in early-stage water-technology startups and university spin-offs based in the Netherlands. Its focus areas are water treatment, water reuse, generating energy from water, and smart water monitoring. The fund backs companies at the pre-seed stage, the earliest point at which a startup can raise outside money.
- Who runs NEW-TTT?
- NEW-TTT is run by a consortium of Dutch water-science institutions, with the regional development agency NOM managing the investment fund itself. Allard van der Horst is the fund's investment manager, while Ronald Wielinga, COO of Water Alliance, leads the wider entrepreneurship programme on the WaterCampus in Leeuwarden.
- What does NEW-TTT stand for?
- NEW-TTT stands for Netherlands Enabling Watertechnology. The TTT refers to the Thematic Technology Transfer scheme, a Dutch government programme that funds research-to-market consortia. NEW is the water-technology consortium, backed by Wetsus, Deltares, the University of Groningen, and NOM, that won one of those awards in 2021.
- Where is NEW-TTT based?
- NEW-TTT is based on the WaterCampus in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands, a cluster that concentrates Dutch water-technology research and startups. The fund operates nationally, backing water-technology companies across the country rather than only those in its immediate region.
- How does NEW-TTT invest?
- NEW-TTT typically invests through convertible loans, an early-stage instrument that converts into equity at a later funding round. It targets very young companies, often pre-revenue spin-offs holding a patent, with the aim of making them ready for the next round of investors. The programme is funded through 2027.