The Grantham Foundation
The Grantham Foundation is a Boston-based private climate-and-environment foundation that makes early-stage venture bets, including in water technology. Founded by GMO co-founder Jeremy Grantham in 1997, it invests as first capital through its arm, Neglected Climate Opportunities. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks two of its water companies and rates its water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
The Grantham Foundation is the philanthropic engine of a man who built his career calling market bubbles, then aimed that conviction at climate. Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the Boston asset manager GMO, set up the foundation with his wife Hannelore in 1997 and has since steered roughly a billion dollars toward climate action. The investing happens through Neglected Climate Opportunities, the family's venture arm, which writes the first cheque into ideas other investors will not touch yet.
The Grantham Foundation's pitch to itself is a contrarian one: back the overlooked. It funds energy, soil, oceans, carbon removal and the messy business of pulling critical metals out of the ground, often as first capital, sometimes the first experiment. That patience matters in water, where the path to a real product runs long and most venture clocks run short.
In water, The Grantham Foundation shows up where chemistry meets scarcity. The two water companies I track in Leviathan, Summit Nanotech and Lilac Solutions, both pull lithium straight from brine instead of evaporating it across desert ponds, a process that lives or dies on water. It is a narrow but pointed water thesis: treat brine as a resource, not a waste stream.
The Grantham Foundation runs lean, with Director of Oceans Marc von Keitz and Director of Climate Investing Caroline de Bossart placing the early bets and President Ramsay Ravenel steering the endowment behind them. For a newcomer, it is the rare investor that treats water as a climate problem worth funding before the market agrees.
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 the Grantham Foundation invest in?
- The Grantham Foundation invests in early-stage climate and environmental technology, from energy and soil to oceans, carbon removal and critical-metal mining. It backs overlooked ideas as first capital. In water specifically, (don't) Waste Water tracks two of its bets, both focused on extracting lithium from brine.
- What stage and check style does the Grantham Foundation use?
- The Grantham Foundation invests at the earliest stages, often pre-seed or seed, describing itself as sometimes the first capital and even the first experiment. It invests through its venture arm, Neglected Climate Opportunities, prioritizing underfunded sectors over crowded ones where returns are easier to model.
- Who runs the Grantham Foundation?
- The Grantham Foundation was founded by GMO co-founder Jeremy Grantham and his wife Hannelore in 1997. Ramsay Ravenel is President and Chief Investment Officer, while Marc von Keitz leads ocean investing and Caroline de Bossart leads climate investing, placing the foundation's early-stage bets.
- Where is the Grantham Foundation based?
- The Grantham Foundation is based in Boston, Massachusetts, where its venture arm Neglected Climate Opportunities also operates. Jeremy Grantham co-founded the Boston asset manager GMO, and the foundation's climate work is anchored in the same city, alongside the Grantham research institutes it funds in the United Kingdom.
- Is the Grantham Foundation the same as the Grantham Institute or GMO?
- No. The Grantham Foundation is a private climate foundation that makes grants and venture investments. GMO is the asset-management firm Jeremy Grantham co-founded, and the Grantham Institutes at Imperial College London and the LSE are university research centers the foundation funds. They are separate organizations.