OTB Ventures
OTB Ventures is an Amsterdam-based, pan-European deeptech venture fund. It backs early-growth startups in spacetech, enterprise AI, fintech infrastructure, and cybersecurity, and reaches water through space: its one water-relevant holding, Hydrosat, reads land-surface temperature from orbit to flag drought and crop stress. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks one water company across three deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
OTB Ventures closed a $185 million deeptech fund in 2024 with the NATO Innovation Fund among its backers, which tells you most of what you need to know about where its head is. OTB Ventures backs spacetech, enterprise AI and semiconductors, fintech plumbing, and cybersecurity, the dual-use technologies that sit where civilian and defence demand overlap. Water is nowhere in that mandate, and yet OTB Ventures owns one of the more interesting water companies I track.
That company is Hydrosat, and it is the whole reason OTB Ventures turns up in a water database at all. Hydrosat flies thermal-infrared sensors on satellites and reads the temperature of the ground itself, turning that signal into early warning for drought, irrigation need, and crop stress across whole regions. OTB Ventures got there through space, not through water: the same earth-observation lens that serves agriculture and security happens to be one of the sharpest instruments we have for spotting water scarcity before it shows up in a reservoir. For OTB Ventures, water is something you measure from orbit.
OTB Ventures runs out of Amsterdam with offices in Warsaw and, since 2025, Luxembourg, and it writes its cheques mostly at Series A with a deep reserve held back for following its winners into later rounds. Co-founder and managing partner Adam Niewiński sits on Hydrosat's board, the kind of hands-on commitment that signals real conviction rather than a passive tag-along. OTB Ventures has stayed with Hydrosat across multiple rounds rather than spreading itself thinly across the sector. The pattern here is concentration, not coverage.
What I watch with OTB Ventures is whether water ever earns a second name on the page or stays a single, excellent line item. Its thesis points at orbit, robots, and chips, so any future water bet will almost certainly arrive the way Hydrosat did, as the water-shaped edge of a deeptech story. For now OTB Ventures is a deeptech fund that happens to own the satellite which sees the drought coming, and Hydrosat is the name to know it by.
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 OTB Ventures invest in?
- OTB Ventures backs early-growth deeptech startups across four areas: spacetech, enterprise AI and semiconductors, fintech infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Within water, (don't) Waste Water tracks a single holding, Hydrosat, whose thermal-infrared satellites read land-surface temperature to warn of drought, irrigation need, and crop stress.
- Is OTB Ventures a water fund?
- No. OTB Ventures is a pan-European deeptech venture fund whose mandate is spacetech, AI, fintech infrastructure, and cybersecurity, not water. It holds one water-relevant company, the thermal-satellite firm Hydrosat, which (don't) Waste Water counts across three deals from Seed to Series B.
- Who runs OTB Ventures?
- OTB Ventures was founded in 2017 by Adam Niewiński and Marcin Hejka, who serve as co-founders and managing partners. Niewiński, who started in banking and fintech, sits on Hydrosat's board. The partner team also includes Karol Szubstarski, Wojtek Walniczek, and Luxembourg-based Jeremy Teboul.
- Where is OTB Ventures based?
- OTB Ventures is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with additional offices in Warsaw, Poland, and, since 2025, Luxembourg. Founded in 2017, it invests across Europe and manages more than $350 million, including a $185 million second fund closed in 2024 with the NATO Innovation Fund as a backer.
- How many water deals has OTB Ventures done?
- (don't) Waste Water tracks one water company in the OTB Ventures portfolio, Hydrosat, across three deals from Seed through Series B. OTB Ventures is an occasional water investor whose core focus sits in deeptech, spacetech, and dual-use technology rather than water itself.