Plum Alley Ventures
Plum Alley Ventures is a New York venture firm that backs early-stage, frontier-technology startups built by gender-diverse, STEM-credentialed founding teams. Water is one slice of that gender-lens thesis: as of 2026 it has backed two water-data companies, Biobot Analytics and KETOS, across three tracked deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Plum Alley Ventures backs companies most funds never see, because it screens for something most funds ignore: a woman in a STEM role on the founding team. From New York, Plum Alley writes early cheques into frontier technology, owned IP, patented hardware and medical breakthroughs, where at least one founder is a credentialed woman scientist or engineer. The gender lens is the whole strategy, not a side pledge.
Plum Alley did not start as a fund. Deborah Jackson built it around 2012 as an online marketplace for women-made goods, turned it into a members-only angel syndicate, and only then into venture funds, an unusual path that still shows in its structure: alongside its funds it runs syndicates of fee-paying member investors who co-invest deal by deal. Plum Alley never set out to be a water fund; water is simply what its gender lens caught.
Plum Alley's two water companies are both women-founded water-data plays. Biobot Analytics, started by MIT scientists Mariana Matus and Newsha Ghaeli, reads a city's sewage to track public-health signals from viruses to drug use. KETOS, founded by engineer Meena Sankaran, puts sensors and machine learning on water systems to flag contaminants down to parts per billion for farms, utilities and industry. Both turn water into data, and both were founded by women in STEM, which is exactly why a fund with no water mandate owns them.
As of December 2025 Plum Alley says it has deployed more than $100 million across 36 companies with a woman STEM founder, and in 2026 it is launching a new vehicle, the Foresight AI Fund II. Two water companies across three deals is a light water footprint by design, which is why (don't) Waste Water rates Plum Alley's water commitment Occasional. For a newcomer the read is simple: this is a gender-lens frontier-tech fund where water shows up as a symptom of the strategy, not the target.
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 Plum Alley Ventures invest in?
- Plum Alley Ventures invests in early-stage, frontier-technology companies, owned intellectual property, patented hardware, medical breakthroughs and digital platforms, built by gender-diverse, STEM-credentialed founding teams with at least one woman in a science or engineering role. Water sits inside that thesis through data-driven companies, not as a standalone focus.
- What water companies has Plum Alley Ventures backed?
- Plum Alley Ventures has backed two water companies that (don't) Waste Water tracks: Biobot Analytics, which analyzes municipal sewage to monitor public-health signals from viruses to drug use, and KETOS, which uses sensors and machine learning to detect water contaminants in real time. Both were founded by women scientists and engineers.
- Who runs Plum Alley Ventures?
- Plum Alley Ventures was founded by Deborah Jackson, who serves as its CEO and a general partner. Avantika Daing is managing partner and general partner, leading investments, supported by a small New York team that includes vice president of investments Nate Wang and venture associate Parker Fay.
- Where is Plum Alley Ventures based?
- Plum Alley Ventures is based in New York City and invests in companies across the United States and beyond. Its member-investor syndicates draw participants nationwide, but the firm itself, its funds and its small investment team are all run from New York.
- Is Plum Alley Ventures the same as the Plum Alley shopping site?
- Plum Alley began around 2012 as an e-commerce marketplace for women-made goods before becoming an investment platform, so the name still surfaces retail results. Today Plum Alley Ventures refers to the New York venture firm and its member syndicates backing women-led STEM startups, not a store.