SQM
SQM is a Chilean mining and chemicals giant that backs water-technology startups through its corporate venture arm, SQM Lithium Ventures. Founded in 1968 and rooted in the water-scarce Atacama Desert, SQM invests in reverse-osmosis desalination, lithium-brine separation and off-grid purification, and has led all three of its tracked water deals as of 2026.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
SQM mines lithium, iodine and potassium from the Salar de Atacama, which happens to be one of the driest places on Earth, so for this company water has never been a box to tick on a sustainability report, it is the daily constraint on almost everything it pulls out of the ground. That is the lens I use whenever I look at where SQM puts its money: a mining giant that pumps brine in a desert has every concrete reason to care about who is reinventing desalination and water reuse.
SQM does that backing through SQM Lithium Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm it stood up at the end of 2022 with a roughly forty-million-dollar mandate spread across lithium, water and electric mobility (corporate venture capital, or CVC, just means a big company running its own startup fund instead of a standalone firm). On the water side I track three bets, and the pattern is consistent: technologies that pull clean water, or pure lithium, out of very salty and very awkward streams, from compact batch reverse osmosis to liquid-based brine separation and solar-powered purification for places with no grid at all.
SQM Lithium Ventures is largely the work of Maria de los Angeles Romo, who built the unit from scratch after years at Chile's development agency Corfo and at the entrepreneur network Endeavor, and who keeps turning up on global corporate-venturing leader lists. She runs it as a lead investor rather than a passive cheque-writer, and SQM has led every one of those three water rounds, which tells you it wants a seat at the table on the technology itself, not just quiet exposure to the theme.
SQM is, for my money, the clearest example I track of a heavy industrial player treating water scarcity as something to invest in rather than merely report on, and because its own survival in the Atacama depends on solving exactly these problems, I expect its water portfolio to stay one of the more patient and operationally serious corners of strategic water capital worth watching.
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 water companies does SQM invest in?
- SQM backs water and brine-treatment startups through SQM Lithium Ventures, its corporate venture arm. Its tracked water portfolio covers three companies working on reverse-osmosis desalination, liquid-based lithium-brine separation and off-grid solar purification. SQM has led all three rounds, signalling a hands-on strategic interest rather than a passive financial stake.
- Is SQM a mining company or a venture fund?
- SQM is primarily Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, founded in 1968 and one of the world's largest producers of lithium, iodine and plant nutrition. Its venture investing runs through SQM Lithium Ventures, a corporate venture capital arm launched in 2022 to back startups across lithium, water and electric mobility.
- Who runs SQM Lithium Ventures?
- SQM Lithium Ventures was built and is directed by Maria de los Angeles Romo, who set up the unit in 2022 after senior roles at Chile's development agency Corfo and the entrepreneur network Endeavor. She has been named to international corporate-venturing leadership lists for the work.
- Why does SQM invest in water technology?
- SQM mines lithium and other minerals from the Salar de Atacama, one of the driest places on Earth, where brine pumping and water use are constant operational constraints. Backing desalination, water-reuse and brine-separation startups gives SQM a strategic hedge and early access to technologies it may eventually deploy at its own sites.
- Where is SQM based?
- SQM is headquartered in Santiago, Chile, with its core mining operations in the Atacama Desert in the north of the country and commercial offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Its venture arm, SQM Lithium Ventures, runs a global remit and an accelerator programme based in Chile's Antofagasta region.