The Innovation Fund
The Innovation Fund is a Brussels-based venture fund that backs chemistry and life-sciences startups. It was created in 2015 by essenscia, Belgium's chemical-industry federation, and bankrolled by majors like Total, Solvay and BASF. Water is a sliver of its book: of roughly 39 holdings, just one, InOpSys, is a water company.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
The Innovation Fund is one of Europe's odder venture investors: a fund the chemical industry built for itself. essenscia, Belgium's federation for chemistry and life sciences, set it up in 2015 and lined up a who's-who of the sector, Total, Solvay, BASF, Arkema and Recticel among them, to put real capital behind the spin-offs its members kept turning up.
The Innovation Fund grew out of a competition. essenscia's 2012 Innovation Award and the Innovation Circle that followed have mentored more than 100 young companies, and the Fund is the cheque-writing arm that backs the ones that grow up. It runs as a quiet evergreen vehicle, meaning capital that recycles instead of a fund with a fixed end date, of around 35 million euros, and it tends to co-invest alongside university seed funds rather than lead rounds itself.
Water is a sliver of that book. Of the fund's roughly 39 holdings, just one is a water company: InOpSys, a KU Leuven spin-off that builds mobile, modular plants to clean the hazardous wastewater chemical and pharmaceutical sites would otherwise truck away. The Innovation Fund backed it across two rounds from 2015, alongside KU Leuven's own seed fund, a textbook bet for this firm: a chemistry problem solved with chemistry.
As of 2024, that one water bet has run its course: industrial waste group Indaver acquired InOpSys, and the Innovation Fund was among the shareholders that exited. For a founder reading this page, the signal is plain. The Innovation Fund is a chemical-industry vehicle first, and it will write a water cheque only when the science sits squarely inside its members' world.
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 · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does The Innovation Fund invest in?
- The Innovation Fund invests in chemistry and life-sciences startups, the deep-tech spin-offs coming out of Belgium's chemical sector. It is an evergreen, public-private vehicle that co-invests rather than leads, and has made around 39 investments since 2015. Water is a small part of that, handled case by case rather than as a dedicated theme.
- Who runs The Innovation Fund?
- The Innovation Fund was created by essenscia, Belgium's chemistry and life-sciences federation, and its industrial members such as Total, Solvay and BASF. It is chaired by François Cornélis, a former Total vice-chairman, with Pol-Henry Bonte, an ex-BNP Paribas Fortis corporate financier, as Principal handling its investments.
- Does The Innovation Fund invest in water?
- The Innovation Fund invests in water selectively. In the (don't) Waste Water database it has backed one water company, InOpSys, a KU Leuven spin-off whose mobile units treat hazardous wastewater from chemical and pharma plants. Indaver acquired InOpSys in 2024, and the Innovation Fund was among the shareholders that exited.
- Where is The Innovation Fund based?
- The Innovation Fund is based in Brussels, Belgium, hosted at the essenscia federation's offices in Schaerbeek. It has operated since 2015 as a public-private fund for chemistry and life-sciences startups, backed by the Belgian chemical industry and investing mainly across Belgium and Europe.
- Is The Innovation Fund the same as the EU Innovation Fund?
- No. The EU Innovation Fund is the European Commission's large climate programme, financed by emissions-trading revenues. This Innovation Fund is a Belgian venture fund created by the essenscia chemical federation to back chemistry and life-sciences startups. They share a name but are entirely separate organisations.