SVG Ventures
SVG Ventures is a Silicon Valley agrifood-tech venture firm, founded in 2010 and known for its global THRIVE accelerator for farming and food startups. Its water bets sit inside agriculture: smarter irrigation and livestock water recycling. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 water companies it has backed and rates its water commitment Committed.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
SVG Ventures is the agrifood investor that grew up around farming's hardest practical problems, and water is one of the biggest. John Hartnett, a former Palm executive who once ran a $3.5 billion smartphone business, founded the firm in Silicon Valley in 2010 and built it into THRIVE, a global accelerator and venture platform that has worked with Fortune 500 food and agriculture corporations and more than fifty startups. SVG Ventures backs agriculture broadly, and its water exposure flows straight from the farm, the sector that already drinks the largest share of the world's freshwater.
SVG Ventures' water exposure is easiest to read through the two companies (don't) Waste Water tracks in the portfolio. Verdi retrofits the irrigation valves already sitting in a field with solar-powered, cloud-connected controls, so a grower can dial water up or down remotely instead of flood-irrigating on a fixed schedule. Livestock Water Recycling builds modular plants that pull clean water and nutrients back out of the manure streams a dairy or hog barn produces. The common thread is water inside the farm gate, irrigation that wastes less and animal operations that recycle what they would otherwise flush away.
SVG Ventures invests the way an accelerator does as much as a fund: it runs cohorts, the THRIVE programs, and writes early, Seed-stage cheques, the first institutional money a startup raises. Water keeps recurring as a theme inside those cohorts rather than as a standalone water fund, surfacing through agtech ideas like precision irrigation and on-farm resource recovery, and backed by the corporate partners, from Trimble to Land O'Lakes, that anchor the platform.
For a newcomer placing SVG Ventures, the takeaway is that the water angle is a slice of a much larger agrifood thesis, not the whole story. The two water names across two deals are a small share of a portfolio of more than fifty companies, but they point in one consistent direction. As farming runs into tighter water, SVG Ventures keeps betting on technology that helps agriculture grow more with less of it, which is the lens worth keeping: an agrifood investor that treats water as one of the resources its startups simply have to use better.
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 SVG Ventures invest in?
- SVG Ventures invests in agrifood and agriculture technology startups, spanning farming, food production and the supply chain, mostly through its THRIVE accelerator and venture programs. In water, its focus is agriculture's water use: precision irrigation and recycling water from livestock operations, the two water companies (don't) Waste Water tracks in its portfolio.
- Is SVG Ventures a water fund?
- No. SVG Ventures is an agrifood-tech venture firm and accelerator, not a dedicated water investor. Water reaches its portfolio through agriculture, where irrigation and livestock account for most freshwater use. (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 of its companies as water-relevant and rates its overall water commitment Committed.
- Who runs SVG Ventures?
- SVG Ventures was founded in 2010 by John Hartnett, a former Palm executive who is its CEO and also created the Forbes AgTech Summit. The wider team includes Venture Partner Greg Young, Managing Director for EMEA Danny O'Brien, and Managing Director for Canada John Cassidy, running global agrifood programs from Silicon Valley.
- Where is SVG Ventures based?
- SVG Ventures is based in Los Gatos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, where John Hartnett founded it in 2010. Through its THRIVE platform it runs accelerator cohorts and partnerships across the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia, but its team and headquarters sit in the Bay Area.
- Which water companies has SVG Ventures backed?
- SVG Ventures has backed two water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water: Verdi, which retrofits in-field irrigation valves with solar-powered, cloud-connected controls so growers can manage water remotely, and Livestock Water Recycling, which builds modular plants that recover clean water and nutrients from livestock manure streams.