Ponderosa Ventures
Ponderosa Ventures is a New York climate venture capital (VC) firm backing pre-seed and seed startups across food, agriculture, oceans and water, and forestry. Part of the Galvanize Climate Solutions platform, it aims to write a company's first institutional cheque. As of 2026 it has backed 3 water companies, and in 2025 raised about $30 million for its second fund.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Ponderosa Ventures is an early-stage climate investor that spreads its bets across four systems: agriculture, food and supply chain, oceans and water, and forestry and land. Water is one corner of that map, not the whole of it, which is why a fund you might never file under water keeps turning up on water deals. In May 2025 Ponderosa raised about $30 million for its second fund, according to its US securities filing, up from the roughly $21.7 million debut fund it closed in 2022.
Ponderosa runs as part of the Galvanize Climate Solutions platform, the climate-investing firm co-founded by Tom Steyer, which hands the small Ponderosa team an investment committee, legal muscle, and the institutional spine most seed funds its size never get near. That platform backing is the structural story here: a nimble pre-seed and seed shop with the balance sheet of a much larger house behind it. Co-founder and general partner (GP) Evi Steyer leads the fund, with principals Chloë Payne and Anthony Cortese rounding out a deliberately tiny investing team.
Ponderosa's water and ocean work shows a consistent instinct: fund the measurement and the infrastructure, not the water itself. Across the companies (don't) Waste Water tracks, that has meant carbon-removal reactors bolted onto municipal wastewater plants, in-situ sensors that read the ocean's chemistry, and solar controllers that retrofit farm irrigation valves. It is hardware and data for climate-critical water systems, caught at the first institutional round, which is exactly where Ponderosa likes to write its earliest cheque.
Ponderosa is worth watching for one reason a newcomer should hold onto: it is a rare climate fund willing to treat water and the ocean as a first-class line in the thesis rather than a footnote, and it now has a second, larger fund to deploy. For founders, the pitch is speed, with Ponderosa advertising a yes-or-no decision in under three weeks, unusually fast for institutional venture capital. The bet to watch is whether that fast, platform-backed model keeps pulling it into the water deals its larger peers move too slowly to win.
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 · 3 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Ponderosa Ventures invest in?
- Ponderosa Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed-stage climate startups across four sectors: agriculture, food and supply chain, oceans and water, and forestry and land. Its water and ocean investments, which (don't) Waste Water tracks, focus on measurement hardware and infrastructure rather than water utilities themselves.
- Is Ponderosa Ventures a water fund?
- Ponderosa Ventures is a broad climate fund, not a water-only fund. Water and the ocean are one of its four focus areas, alongside agriculture, food, and forestry. Within that slice it has backed 3 water companies across 4 deals, according to (don't) Waste Water's data.
- Who runs Ponderosa Ventures?
- Ponderosa Ventures was co-founded by general partner Evi Steyer, who leads the fund, alongside principals Chloë Payne and Anthony Cortese. The team is small and runs as part of the Galvanize Climate Solutions platform, whose CEO, Katie Hall, sits on Ponderosa's investment committee.
- Where is Ponderosa Ventures based?
- Ponderosa Ventures is based in New York, United States, and invests globally with an emphasis on the US and Europe. It operates as part of the Galvanize Climate Solutions platform and backs companies at the pre-seed and seed stage, often as their first institutional investor.
- How big is Ponderosa Ventures' fund?
- Ponderosa Ventures raised about $30 million for its second fund, according to a US securities filing dated May 2025, up from a roughly $21.7 million debut fund closed in 2022. The firm does not publicly disclose a single assets-under-management (AUM) figure.