Unruly Capital
Unruly Capital is a European venture fund run by a single general partner, Stefano Bernardi, who founded it in 2022 to back pre-seed and seed founders in frontier climate and deep tech. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies, from wave-powered desalination buoys to atmospheric cooling, though water is not its main focus.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Unruly Capital is the rare fund built around a single person. Stefano Bernardi spent years as a Silicon Valley angel and an Atomico scout, then went back to the Italian mountains in 2022 to raise his own vehicle and write the first cheques himself. The pitch is right there in the name: invest in the crazy before it becomes normal, the weirder and earlier the better.
Unruly Capital does not call itself a water fund, and that is the honest place to start. Its mandate is frontier climate and deep tech across the board, from nuclear and algae to drug discovery, and water turns up the way everything does here, as a strange, early bet most investors would not touch. As of 2026, Unruly has backed 2 water companies, both characteristically odd.
Unruly Capital's two water bets show its taste plainly. Ocean Oasis builds floating buoys off the Norwegian coast that turn wave energy into fresh water, desalination with no grid attached. AtmoCooling engineers patented atmospheric cooling to spin up artificial microclimates. Neither is a tidy water-utility play; both are physics-first moonshots aimed at scarcity and heat, which is exactly the kind of thing Unruly exists to fund.
Unruly Capital runs lean: a solo GP with a small team split between London and Italy and a roster of well-known angel backers, which keeps its water exposure opportunistic rather than thematic. For a newcomer, that is the useful read. Unruly will not hand you a dedicated water thesis, but it is a reliable early signal for the weird water tech the specialist funds have not caught up to yet.
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 Unruly Capital invest in?
- Unruly Capital invests in early-stage frontier climate and deep tech, the weirder and earlier the better, from nuclear and algae to drug discovery. It backs pre-seed and seed founders globally with a focus on Europe. Water is part of that thesis, where it has funded 2 water companies.
- Who runs Unruly Capital?
- Unruly Capital is run by Stefano Bernardi, its founder and sole general partner, a former Silicon Valley angel and Atomico scout who launched the fund in 2022. A small team, including investment manager Francesco Moiraghi and analyst Vicky Regan, supports sourcing across Europe.
- How many water companies has Unruly Capital backed?
- Unruly Capital has backed 2 water companies, according to (don't) Waste Water's tracking: Ocean Oasis, which makes fresh water from wave energy, and AtmoCooling, which builds atmospheric cooling for artificial microclimates. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment Committed.
- Where is Unruly Capital based?
- Unruly Capital is based in Italy, where founder Stefano Bernardi runs it from the Trentino mountains, with a London registration and team members there too. It was founded in 2022 and invests globally at pre-seed and seed, with a focus on Europe.
- Is Unruly Capital the same as Unruly the ad-tech company?
- No. Unruly Capital is a venture capital fund founded in 2022 by Stefano Bernardi, unrelated to Unruly Media, the London video-advertising company. Unruly Capital backs early-stage climate and deep-tech startups, including water companies such as Ocean Oasis and AtmoCooling.