URBAN-X
URBAN-X is a Brooklyn-based urbantech startup accelerator built by MINI, the BMW Group brand, that backed early climate and city-focused startups, including a handful in water. As of 2026 URBAN-X has wound down its program, after backing 2 water companies, both at pre-seed stage, that (don't) Waste Water tracks in its Leviathan database.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
URBAN-X is the rare investor in this directory that has already closed its doors. MINI, the small-car brand inside the BMW Group, built URBAN-X in Brooklyn in 2016 as an accelerator for startups reimagining city life, and ran it for nearly a decade. In early 2025 MINI confirmed it would wind the program down at the end of that year, making the September 2024 group its fifteenth and final cohort.
URBAN-X never set out to be a water fund. Its Managing Directors, Micah Kotch and Johan Schwind, ran a broad urbantech thesis spanning mobility, energy, the built environment and climate adaptation, and across its many cohorts water was a thin slice rather than the headline. In (don't) Waste Water's Leviathan database that slice is two water companies, Aquagenuity and Varuna, both backed at pre-seed stage.
URBAN-X's two water bets share a clear shape. Aquagenuity built city and consumer-facing water-quality data from sensors, satellite feeds and AI, and Varuna paired in-pipe sensors with a cloud dashboard for utilities, so both are digital, data-first plays rather than hardware or heavy infrastructure. That fits an accelerator wired for the software and design talent of MINI and the BMW Group, and it is the lens for what URBAN-X looked for: a city problem a small, code-driven team could attack early.
URBAN-X is now a track record rather than an open door. Micah Kotch has moved on to Blackhorn Ventures, where he keeps backing early climate and infrastructure founders, and the startups URBAN-X seeded, the water ones included, are out in the market on their own. For a newcomer scanning water investors, URBAN-X reads as a corporate accelerator chapter that has closed, worth knowing for its alumni and as proof that even a car brand counted water as part of the urban-tech stack.
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
Frequently asked
- What does URBAN-X invest in?
- URBAN-X is a MINI-built urbantech accelerator that backed early-stage startups across mobility, energy, the built environment and climate adaptation. Water was a small part of that mandate: in (don't) Waste Water's Leviathan database, URBAN-X has backed 2 water companies, both at pre-seed stage.
- Is URBAN-X still active?
- URBAN-X has wound down. MINI announced in early 2025 that the accelerator would conclude operations at the end of 2025, and its September 2024 group was the fifteenth and final cohort. URBAN-X's alumni startups remain active, but the program itself is no longer running.
- Who ran URBAN-X?
- URBAN-X was led by founding Managing Director Micah Kotch, who built and ran the MINI accelerator for years and has since become a partner at Blackhorn Ventures, alongside Managing Director Johan Schwind, also part of the founding team. Both shaped its urbantech investment thesis.
- What water companies has URBAN-X backed?
- URBAN-X has backed 2 water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water: Aquagenuity, which builds water-quality data from sensors, satellite feeds and AI, and Varuna, which pairs in-pipe sensors with a cloud dashboard for water utilities. Both were pre-seed investments.
- Is URBAN-X the same as Urban X real estate?
- URBAN-X in this profile is MINI and the BMW Group's Brooklyn urbantech startup accelerator, founded in 2016. It is unrelated to similarly named firms such as the 'Urban X' real-estate and property brands or Argentina's X-Urban SA. (don't) Waste Water tracks only the MINI accelerator and its water investments.