Old College Capital
Old College Capital is the University of Edinburgh's in-house venture capital (VC) fund, backing deep-tech spinouts and startups linked to the university from pre-seed to Series A, across biotech, energy and AI. Water is a small slice of its book, not its thesis. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 water companies it has backed across 3 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Old College Capital is one of the rare venture funds that answers to a university rather than a roomful of outside backers. It is the University of Edinburgh's own in-house VC, run out of Edinburgh Innovations, the commercialisation arm that turns the university's research into companies. Since 2011 it has written cheques into more than 100 spinouts and student startups, from gene therapy to fintech, and water shows up here the way most things do: as a by-product of backing Edinburgh science.
Old College Capital's water exposure is small and specific. Of the companies (don't) Waste Water tracks, two are Edinburgh spinouts that happen to sit on the water problem: SeaWarm, a School of GeoSciences spinout whose heat exchangers pull warmth out of rivers, lochs, seawater and old flooded mineshafts to heat buildings without oil or gas, and MiAlgae, which grows omega-3 microalgae on the leftovers of Scotland's whisky distilleries so aquaculture can stop stripping it from wild fish. Neither is a water-treatment play; both use water as the raw material for something else.
Old College Capital writes early cheques, from pre-seed, the first outside money a company raises, through Series A, and it almost never goes in alone. In (don't) Waste Water's data it has yet to lead a water round, co-investing instead beside the Scottish ecosystem it knows best: Scottish Enterprise, Equity Gap and SIS Ventures. That is the tell of a university fund, patient capital that follows the science out of its own labs rather than chasing competitive deals.
For a newcomer, Old College Capital reads better as a map than as a water fund to pitch. Its bets mark where the University of Edinburgh's water-adjacent research is heading, and under head of investment Katharine Fox the team has grown to roughly seven investors through early 2026. Watch the spinouts, because that is where Scotland's next water company tends to surface long before any fund advertises a water thesis.
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
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Old College Capital invest in?
- Old College Capital invests in deep-tech spinouts and startups linked to the University of Edinburgh, from pre-seed to Series A, across biotechnology, energy, AI, robotics and fintech. Within that mandate it has backed water companies such as SeaWarm and MiAlgae, two of the companies (don't) Waste Water tracks.
- Is Old College Capital a water fund?
- Old College Capital is a generalist university venture fund, not a water specialist. Water is a small part of a portfolio of more than 100 companies. (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 water companies it has backed across 3 deals, both University of Edinburgh spinouts working on water-source heating and algae-based feed.
- Who runs Old College Capital?
- Old College Capital is led by head of investment Katharine Fox and sits inside Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh's commercialisation service. Her investment team includes Dougal Adamson, Ellasaid Woodhouse and Hannah Dent, and grew to about seven investment professionals through early 2026.
- Where is Old College Capital based?
- Old College Capital is based in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, where it operates as the University of Edinburgh's in-house venture investment fund. It backs companies associated with the university and co-invests alongside Scottish investors such as Scottish Enterprise, Equity Gap and SIS Ventures.
- Is Old College Capital connected to Old College in Edinburgh?
- Old College Capital takes its name from Old College, the University of Edinburgh's historic central building, but it is the university's venture investment fund rather than the building or a property arm. It is unrelated to similarly named firms such as the US trading house Old Mission.