Emerald Technology Ventures, a Zurich-based VC firm with two decades of water-sector leadership, announced reaching the €100 million milestone for its Global Water Fund II in order to invest in startups innovating in the WaterTech scene.
Today’s milestone was reached with the help of Temasek, Grundfos Foundation, Veralto Corporation, Ecolab, SKion Water and Oxy Technology Ventures. This comes less than one month since Emerald announced their strategic partnership with DIC Corporation, a Japanese chemical manufacturer, establishing a €52 million investment platform – as reported by EU-Startups.
“With Temasek and Grundfos Foundation joining Global Water Fund II, we are bringing together two globally influential organisations with highly complementary perspectives on water resilience. The fund is designed as a platform where this kind of collaboration can take shape – connecting long-term capital, industrial leadership, and breakthrough technologies to accelerate solutions across the global water system,” said Dr Helge Daebel, Partner at Emerald and longstanding head of its water practice.
Recent EU-Startups coverage shows continued investment activity around water and water-adjacent technologies.
In January 2026, Hydrosat – headquartered in Luxembourg and the US – raised €51 million in Series B funding to expand its thermal infrared satellite data and AI analytics platform supporting agriculture, water resource monitoring, insurance and climate risk management.
In the same month, Amsterdam-based PureTerra Ventures secured an initial €10 million cornerstone commitment from Invest-NL toward its €150 million WaterTech Fund II, which aims to invest in startups developing solutions for water efficiency, reuse and industrial water quality.
Combined, these announcements represent roughly €61 million in recently disclosed startup funding in the wider water innovation ecosystem, alongside up to €150 million in targeted venture capital through specialised WaterTech funds.
In this context, Emerald Technology Ventures’ €100 million milestone for Global Water Fund II highlights the continued mobilisation of capital dedicated to water resilience technologies across infrastructure, monitoring, treatment and reuse.
“Within the water sector, we are convinced that doing business goes hand in hand with doing good. Our investment is a bid to help more water startups grow strong and address global water and climate challenges,” adds Executive Director Kim Nøhr Skibsted, Grundfos Foundation.
Founded in 2000, Emerald manages and advises assets of over €1 billion from its offices in Zurich, Toronto and Singapore. The firm invests in startups that tackle big challenges in climate change and sustainability, with four current funds, hundreds of venture transactions and five third-party investment mandates, including loan guarantees to over 100 startups.
The firm had previously announced the first close of €60 million late in 2025.
Global Water Fund II is targeting a total size of €150–180 million. The fund will accelerate innovation across the entire water value chain by investing in early to growth stage companies worldwide that are developing solutions in infrastructure and business resilience, advanced treatment, reuse, digitally enhanced monitoring, prediction, decision making and automation as well as technologies to address emerging contaminants.
Emerald’s first water fund has catalysed multiple WaterTech success stories, leveraging the firm’s track record in the sector – which includes successful exits of portfolio companies to industry giants such as SUEZ, Xylem and BASF.
Another measure of its success has been the fund’s facilitation of key collaborations between corporations and startups/scale-ups, such as the work that Microsoft has accomplished with Kilimo and FIDO.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/03/targeting-water-innovation-swiss-vc-emerald-technology-ventures-hits-e100-million-for-global-water-fund-ii/
