Rethink Impact
Rethink Impact is the largest US gender-lens venture capital firm, backing female founders who use technology to solve big problems. The gender lens means it invests only in women-led and non-binary-led companies across health, education, sustainability and economic mobility. In water, the Leviathan database tracks one investment: the water-intelligence startup KETOS.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Rethink Impact is the rare venture fund that screens every deal through one question: is a woman building this? As of September 2024 it had pulled in more than half a billion dollars across three funds, with commitments from the likes of Melinda French Gates and UBS, making it the largest US venture firm built around backing female founders.
Rethink Impact calls its approach a gender lens, which simply means the fund only writes cheques to companies led by women or non-binary founders, then hunts for the ones using technology to move the needle on health, education, sustainability and economic mobility. Its backers, the limited partners or LPs whose money it invests, are largely university endowments and foundations betting that funding overlooked founders is an edge, not charity.
Rethink Impact lands on this water page through a single company, and the story is pure gender lens. KETOS is a water-intelligence startup that puts real-time sensors and software on drinking-water and industrial systems to flag contamination and waste, and it was founded by Meena Sankaran, who grew up in India watching her mother boil water again and again. Managing Partner Heidi Patel was an early backer.
Across everything I have logged in the Leviathan database, KETOS is Rethink Impact's only water holding, one company across two rounds, with no new water cheque since 2020. (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment One-Off. For a newcomer mapping who actually funds water, file Rethink Impact not as a water fund but as a gender-lens generalist whose thesis can carry it into water whenever the founder is a woman with the right technology.
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 Rethink Impact invest in?
- Rethink Impact invests in female and non-binary founders building technology companies across health, education, sustainability and economic mobility, applying a gender lens that makes the founder's gender a deliberate screen. Since 2016 it has backed more than 25 companies, one of which, the water-intelligence startup KETOS, sits in water.
- Is Rethink Impact a water-focused fund?
- Rethink Impact is not a water fund. It is a gender-lens venture firm that backs women-led technology companies across many sectors, and water reaches its portfolio only through KETOS, a water-intelligence startup founded by a woman. With one water company and no new water deal since 2020, (don't) Waste Water rates its water commitment One-Off.
- Who runs Rethink Impact?
- Rethink Impact was founded in 2016 by Jenny Abramson, its Managing Partner and a former tech CEO who ran the security startup LiveSafe. She co-leads the firm with Managing Partner Heidi Patel, who backed KETOS and teaches impact investing at Stanford. Jill Ni serves as a Principal on the investment team.
- Where is Rethink Impact based?
- Rethink Impact is based in New York, with team members working from Washington DC and the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm runs a national, US-focused gender-lens practice rather than a single-office fund, and its investors include university endowments, foundations, and limited partners such as UBS.
- How much has Rethink Impact raised?
- Rethink Impact has raised more than 500 million dollars across three funds. As of September 2024 it closed its third fund at over 250 million dollars, the largest US venture fund backing female-led companies, with limited partners including Melinda French Gates and UBS. Gender-lens investing is its defining, and growing, strategy.