Amsterdam, 19 August 2026 — Momentum Global Ventures, together with its partners, is committing at least €100 million over the period from 2024 to 2027 to a transatlantic platform of deep-tech ventures in the field of Water & AI.
Following investments in the first Water & AI ventures, we are now scaling up that programme. Several new investments are being added to the portfolio and will be announced in the coming period.
Launch in 2024
In early 2024, we at Momentum decided to build a position in the water sector, and to do so in a specific way.
Water scarcity has so far attracted the most attention from the market and the most capital. However, water quality is where regulation is now heading. PFAS is the clearest example: the problem is now widely recognised, both in water and in industrial gases, and regulations are being introduced or tightened in virtually every developed economy. The same trend applies to pharmaceutical residues and other industrial contaminants. For industrial players and water treatment plants, this represents an obligation that has, until now, largely remained off their balance sheets. The costs and impacts of new regulations will now have to be factored into their financial figures. This presents financial opportunities for ventures with technology that helps industries retain their licence to operate.
We are therefore focusing more on water quality than on water scarcity or surplus, and are investing in deep-tech ventures with physical technology combined with AI – rather than in water infrastructure and the utility companies themselves. These deep-tech ventures specialise in purifying water, removing harmful chemicals from it and preventing those chemicals from entering the water in the first place.
The time is now for Water & AI
Over the past year, various institutions have demonstrated from a range of perspectives that now is the time to invest in water quality.
In its December 2025 playbook, the World Economic Forum – in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and Acea – estimated the global investment gap in water infrastructure at €6.5 trillion by 2040 and concluded that this is not a technological problem: “Solutions already exist and can be adapted and scaled”.
In *Securing and Financing the Future of Water* (2026), Goldman Sachs reached the same conclusion from a market perspective: “The water economy is increasingly investable”.
J.P. Morgan, in collaboration with ERM, stated that water is shifting from an operational to a strategic and financial issue. Unlike with CO₂, investments in water technology pay for themselves immediately at the point where they are made: “Creating economic incentives for improved treatment technologies”.
Currently, only 2 per cent to 3 per cent of global water investment comes from private capital; governments provide the rest. This is set to change, partly because the roll-out of AI data centres is creating a new type of customer for water technology – one with both an urgent water problem and the financial resources to pay for its solution. There is therefore a significant, documented need for water investment, very little established private competition currently investing, and – with hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Amazon (AWS) – a new customer and investor capable of financing the technology.
Transatlantic, with a focus on North America and Europe
To date, Momentum has transferred and allocated capital to six ventures serving different areas within water quality. Examples include:
Treatment chemistry. Catalytic technology, developed in collaboration with a leading US university, which removes chemical and pharmaceutical contaminants from industrial and municipal water and reduces the amount of chemicals required in industrial production.
Operational intelligence. AI-driven autonomous operation of water treatment plants, in response to a shortage of experienced operators which is set to worsen as an entire generation retires.
Destruction at source. The permanent destruction of substances such as PFAS and other harmful substances at the point where they are generated, rather than capturing, storing or relocating them.
The portfolio focused on water quality is transatlantic. The ventures are predominantly based in the United States and each has a presence in Europe; we intend to add new European ventures.
