Xora Innovation
Xora Innovation is the early-stage deep-tech investment platform of Temasek, Singapore's state-owned investor, backing founders in computing, energy, and AI for physical industries. Water is occasional here: it arrives through the energy and critical-minerals door, where Leviathan tracks one water company, lithium-extraction startup Summit Nanotech, across three deals. As of 2026, Leviathan rates Xora's water commitment Occasional.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Xora Innovation is the in-house deep-tech venture arm of Temasek, Singapore's state-owned investment company, and it is built to do more than write cheques: it also forms and launches its own hard-science startups through Xora Venture Labs, the incubation practice that has spun up companies like the grid-transformer firm Amperesand and the sustainable-fuel venture Aether Fuels. Xora enters early, at seed or Series A, and concentrates on three arenas: computing and communications, energy, and AI in physical industries. Water has never been a fund of its own here.
Xora reaches water through its energy and critical-minerals thesis, not through utilities or pipes. The one water company Leviathan tracks in the portfolio is Summit Nanotech, a Calgary startup whose denaLi platform pulls lithium straight out of salt brines with a process that recycles its own water and sidesteps the vast evaporation ponds conventional lithium mining leaves to bake in the sun. Xora backed Summit Nanotech as a deep-tech bet on cleaner battery materials, and Managing Partner Phil Inagaki sits on the company's board.
Xora is a deep-tech generalist first, and its own scorecard says so plainly. Leviathan logs one water company across three deals and rates the water commitment Occasional. The water Xora touches is industrial and resource-recovery water, the kind that turns up inside an energy or critical-minerals process, not drinking-water systems or digital-water software.
As of 2026 Xora is growing outward, naming Eric Rosenblum a general partner in April to build out its United States presence and lean harder into AI. For a firm that backs and builds deep-tech companies from Singapore, water will most likely keep arriving the way Summit Nanotech did: a hard-science bet where using less water is a feature of the technology, not the mission.
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 Xora Innovation invest in?
- Xora Innovation is Temasek's early-stage deep-tech platform, backing founders at seed and Series A across computing and communications, energy, and AI in physical industries. In water, Leviathan tracks one company, Summit Nanotech, whose direct-lithium-extraction technology recycles water and cuts the freshwater use of conventional brine mining.
- Is Xora Innovation a water-focused fund?
- Xora Innovation is not a water-focused fund. It is a broad deep-tech investor, and water shows up occasionally through its energy and critical-minerals work. Leviathan tracks a single water company, Summit Nanotech, across three deals, and rates Xora's water commitment Occasional rather than a dedicated water strategy.
- Who runs Xora Innovation?
- Xora Innovation is led by Phil Inagaki, its Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, who also runs the Xora Venture Labs incubation arm and sits on Summit Nanotech's board. The partner bench includes Artem Smirnov and Phoebe Tan, with Eric Rosenblum joining as a US general partner in 2026 and Alan Thompson as chief executive.
- Where is Xora Innovation based?
- Xora Innovation is headquartered in Singapore, where it operates as the deep-tech investment platform of Temasek, the city-state's state-owned investment company. As of 2026 it is expanding its presence in the United States, having appointed Eric Rosenblum as a general partner to build out its American deep-tech and AI investing.
- Is Xora Innovation the same as Temasek?
- No. Xora Innovation is Temasek's dedicated early-stage deep-tech platform, not Temasek itself. Temasek is Singapore's state-owned investment company managing a global portfolio; Xora is the small, specialist team it backs to invest in and build seed and Series A deep-tech startups, including its rare water bets.