Kurita Water Industries
Kurita Water Industries is a Tokyo-listed water-treatment company that invests strategically in water-technology startups to secure exclusive rights to their technology. Founded in 1949, it is one of the world's largest dedicated water companies. As of 2026 it has backed four water startups, including Cyclopure, Evove, and Aqua Membranes.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Kurita Water Industries invests in water-tech startups to lock down exclusive rights to their technology, then folds it into the industrial water business it has run since 1949. Two deals only months apart show the pattern: in October 2025 Kurita became the largest shareholder in UK membrane maker Evove and took global rights to its direct lithium-extraction process, and in April 2026 it backed the US startup Cyclopure for exclusive US rights to DEXSORB, a material that strips PFAS "forever chemicals" out of water.
Kurita is one of the largest dedicated water companies on the planet, a Tokyo-listed business that treats water for semiconductor plants, factories and cities. Its move into startup investing started early for a Japanese corporate: Kurita put money into Draper Nexus, now DNX Ventures, back in 2014, and today it keeps two scouts stationed in Silicon Valley hunting for technology its own labs have not built. The same instinct runs through its Kurita Innovation Hub, its SPLASH startup events with DNX, and its work with the accelerator Imagine H2O.
Kurita backs the narrow set of technologies that slot straight into that business: PFAS removal at Cyclopure, membranes and lithium recovery at Evove, reverse-osmosis spacers at Aqua Membranes, and digital water monitoring at Apana. Across four water companies Kurita has led most of the rounds it joined, usually paired with a strategic rights deal rather than a syndicate of financial funds. President Hirohiko Ejiri, who took the top job in 2023, reshuffled the board in April 2026 and handed CTO Kunihiro Kuse more control over execution, a signal that the next wave of Kurita's water bets will be driven from the engineering side, where the technology actually gets used.
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 · 4 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Kurita Water Industries invest in?
- Kurita Water Industries invests in water-technology startups whose tools fit its own industrial water business: PFAS removal, advanced membranes, reverse-osmosis components, lithium recovery, and digital water monitoring. It usually pairs the investment with exclusive rights to use or sell the technology, rather than seeking a purely financial return.
- Is Kurita Water Industries a venture capital firm?
- Kurita Water Industries is not a financial venture-capital or private-equity fund. It is a Tokyo-listed water-treatment company, founded in 1949, that makes strategic investments from its own balance sheet to acquire technology rights. Its US investing runs largely through Kurita America and an open-innovation team based in Silicon Valley.
- Which water companies has Kurita Water Industries backed?
- Kurita Water Industries has backed four water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water: Cyclopure (PFAS-removal adsorbents), Evove (filtration membranes and lithium extraction), Aqua Membranes (3D-printed reverse-osmosis spacers), and Apana (IoT water monitoring). Cyclopure, backed in 2026, is its most recent water investment.
- Where is Kurita Water Industries based?
- Kurita Water Industries is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, where it was founded in 1949 and trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Its North American arm, Kurita America, is based in St. Michael, Minnesota, and runs much of the group's US water-technology investing and startup scouting.
- Who runs Kurita Water Industries?
- Kurita Water Industries is led by Hirohiko Ejiri, its Director, President and Representative Executive Officer since 2023. In an April 2026 reshuffle he also took on sustainability strategy, while CTO Kunihiro Kuse was elevated to oversee more of the group's engineering and technology execution.