Verso Holdings
VERSO Holdings is a Luxembourg merchant-banking boutique that invests private equity and venture capital for institutional and ultra-wealthy clients. Founded in 2017 by Julien Machot, it spans many sectors, and water is a small corner of it. The Leviathan database tracks one water company it backs, Indian atmospheric-water startup Uravu Labs.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
VERSO Holdings is the Luxembourg merchant bank that Julien Machot, a former private banker to ultra-wealthy families at Mirabaud and EFG, built from scratch in 2017. Machot's pitch was to bring venture capital to wealthy families who had mostly seen only private equity and real estate, and to run it from a boutique on Boulevard Royal rather than a Wall Street tower. The firm advises, invests and executes across private equity, venture capital, real estate and special situations, with satellite offices in Geneva, London and Dubai.
VERSO Holdings places its bets through named vehicles rather than one flagship fund: the VERSO Fund, a regulated private-equity and venture vehicle, and VERSO X, which writes small first cheques into startups and can add more as they grow. This is generalist money, not a water fund, so water turns up the way it does in any broad technology portfolio, as the occasional bet that fits a wider belief in backing useful innovation.
VERSO Holdings's one water company in the Leviathan database is Uravu Labs, a Bangalore startup whose machines pull drinking water straight out of the air using only renewable energy, a process called atmospheric water generation. VERSO backed Uravu across two seed-stage rounds, the most recent in 2023, alongside a syndicate of India-focused funds, and Machot framed the bet plainly: water, he said, is the most essential asset on earth, and Uravu offered a renewable way to produce it for the beverage, hospitality and real-estate industries.
VERSO Holdings is best read, by a newcomer to water, as a broad merchant bank whose water exposure is a single considered bet, not a standing thesis. Its most recent water deal on file dates to 2023, so this is a position to understand rather than an active water cheque-book to pitch this quarter. What it signals is appetite: when a generalist investor for the ultra-wealthy reached into water, atmospheric water generation was the idea that earned the cheque.
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 is VERSO Holdings?
- VERSO Holdings is a Luxembourg-based merchant-banking boutique founded in 2017 by Julien Machot. It invests and advises across private equity, venture capital and real estate for institutional and ultra-wealthy clients, with offices in Luxembourg, Geneva, London and Dubai. In water, the Leviathan database tracks one company it backs, Uravu Labs.
- What does VERSO Holdings invest in?
- VERSO Holdings is a generalist investor spanning private equity, venture capital, real estate and special situations, run through vehicles such as the VERSO Fund and VERSO X. Its water footprint is narrow: the Leviathan database records a single water company, Uravu Labs, an Indian maker of renewable atmospheric water-generation systems.
- Who runs VERSO Holdings?
- VERSO Holdings was founded and is led by Julien Machot, a former private banker to the ultra-wealthy who serves as chief executive and managing partner. He is joined by managing partner Daniel Baumslag, chief operating officer Frederic Demargne and partner Helena Lim Poole, working from the firm's Luxembourg base.
- Where is VERSO Holdings based?
- VERSO Holdings is headquartered in Luxembourg, on Boulevard Royal in the capital's financial district, and lists additional offices in Geneva, London and Dubai. The firm chose Luxembourg, a major European fund-domicile hub, as the home for its merchant-banking and venture vehicles.
- Is VERSO Holdings the same as Verso Capital in Finland?
- No. VERSO Holdings, also styled VERSO Capital, is the Luxembourg merchant bank founded by Julien Machot. It is unrelated to Verso Capital, a Helsinki private-equity firm, and to Verso Corporation, the American paper manufacturer. The names collide, but the owners and businesses are entirely separate.