(don't) Waste Water! | Water Tech to Solve the World

Thermal desalination lost the water industry to reverse osmosis on one number: boiling seawater takes about ten times more energy than pushing it through a membrane. So why is one of the 20 teams left in the XPRIZE Water Scarcity competition still betting on heat?

Desolenator is a Dutch water tech company that desalinates with heat instead of pressure, running on solar energy and industrial waste heat rather than grid electricity. Its hybrid panel harvests electricity and thermal energy from the same sunlight, recovers the latent heat of its own steam, and can run to zero liquid discharge, leaving salt instead of brine. Four patents, and a scale-up from 25 to 100, then 1,000 cubic metres a day.

William Janssen built the first proof of principle in his living room and kept the distilled water in his freezer as proof. He won 100,000 euros at Climate Launchpad, was picked up by the Dubai Future Accelerator and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, and delivered plants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Desolenator is chaired by Paddy Padmanathan, who led ACWA Power for 18 years and made it the world's largest desalination company.

🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️
🌡️ Why thermal desalination's ten-times energy penalty disappears when the heat is "chaleur fatale", the waste heat industry pays to throw away
🔌 How a phone call about data centre cooling became patent number four: one heat pump worked from BOTH sides, lifting 50°C exhaust to the 70°C a distiller needs
🌱 Why farmers around Al Ain are salting the aquifer they irrigate from, and how zero liquid discharge breaks that loop
📉 Paddy Padmanathan on the cost curve he signed himself: $2.50 per cubic metre in 2005, $0.46 on his last ACWA Power contract in 2023, and why it still isn't solved
🏆 What William answers when asked point blank whether Desolenator wins the XPRIZE: two words no founder is supposed to say

🥜 IN A NUTSHELL 🥜
What is thermal desalination, and how does it differ from reverse osmosis?
Thermal desalination makes fresh water by evaporating seawater and condensing the steam, the way rain works, while reverse osmosis pushes seawater through a fine membrane under pressure. Reverse osmosis uses roughly ten times less energy and won the municipal market, but it needs electricity, while thermal desalination runs on the low-grade heat industry already wastes.

Can solar energy power desalination?
Yes. Desolenator's panels harvest electricity and heat from the same sunlight and buffer both, which is how its Dubai plant hit the benchmark set by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority: 10 cubic metres a day, 20 hours a day, year-round.

What is zero liquid discharge, and why does it matter for water scarcity?
Zero liquid discharge recovers all the water from a stream and leaves solid salt instead of brine. It matters where brine has nowhere to go: around Al Ain, farmers desalinate saline groundwater and flush the concentrate back into the aquifer, making it saltier each year.

Is thermal desalination a good water investment in 2026?
It depends on scale and free heat. Desolenator draws its own fence at 100 million litres a day, above which membranes win. Its CapEx runs higher than conventional quotes and its OpEx dramatically lower, so the economics favour industrial sites with waste heat or land for solar, and buyers needing zero liquid discharge.

#️⃣ Mentioned Links #️⃣
Desolenator - desolenator.com
Why Elon Musk's Desalination Vision is Failing - watch on YouTube

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FREE TOOL ➡️ Get your water tech pitch reviewed: https://app.leviathandata.io/pitch-deck-analyzer
More #water insights? Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1/

See how the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival brings together creative minds in Newcastle for collaborative problem solving.
Watch the energy of this unique event.

This episode takes you inside the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival to show how large groups tackle industry challenges through structured collaboration.
You will see firsthand how participants move from concept to practical solutions using specific frameworks like sprint tents and the Crystal Ball method.
Whether you are interested in corporate innovation or local Newcastle events, this footage highlights the collaborative process in action.
It is designed for professionals and curious viewers who want to observe how collaborative problem-solving works in a real-world setting, moving beyond traditional meeting rooms to open, creative environments.
If you enjoyed seeing how an Innovation Festival operates, subscribe for weekly industry event recaps, and let us know in the comments if you prefer structured workshops or free-form brainstorming sessions.

#️⃣ All the Links Mentioned in this Video #️⃣
Design Thinking with Lea im Obersteg: https://dww.show/who/lea-im-obersteg/

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Podcast Channel: @dwwpodcast
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🙋 QUESTION: What would you like me to cover next?

⏰ TIME CODES ⏰
00:00 The Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival
03:55 Inside Tent 15
04:32 Design Sprint Crash Course
06:13 South Bend Smart Sewer Origin
09:18 UK Spill Crisis Context
11:25 Power of Ten Ambition
13:30 Reality Check and Tease
14:27 Beetroot Break
15:21 Adoption Workshop Takeaways
20:39 Why Tents Work
21:23 NUAR Billion Dollar Story
24:55 Festival Scale and Impact
28:50 Wrap Up and Reflections
30:31 Free Tool

About this Podcast:
Welcome to the (don't) Waste Water podcast, the leading podcast for water industry professionals, investors, and entrepreneurs seeking deep insights into water tech innovation, investment trends, and strategic moves in the sector. Host Antoine Walter blends his technical expertise with sharp business acumen to deliver weekly episodes featuring candid conversations with C-suite executives, detailed analysis of major water industry developments, and practical insights for water tech startups and seasoned players alike.

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How did HG Ventures quietly become one of the most active water tech investors on the planet, without even calling itself a water VC?

HG Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of The Heritage Group, a 100-year-old, family-owned Indianapolis conglomerate active in asphalt, quarries, environmental services and specialty chemicals. With $350M in assets, the fund deploys around $50M a year across 41 portfolio companies and 7 sectors, and ranks 5th globally in water tech by deal count despite water being only 18% of its thesis.

Ginger Rothrock holds a PhD in chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill, co-founded the NASDAQ-listed pharmaceutical company Liquidia, was promoted to Managing Director of HG Ventures in December 2025, and is a Global Corporate Venturing Rising Star and Kauffman Fellow with deep expertise in industrial water, industrial wastewater treatment, and corporate venture capital in cleantech.

🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️
🏗️ How a 100-year-old asphalt-and-quarries empire ended up running one of the most active water tech portfolios on the planet
🧪 Why a PhD chemist with 75 R&D scientists down the hallway puts technology last, and storytelling first, when she evaluates water tech founders
💧 How HG Ventures built its industrial wastewater treatment, industrial water reuse and zero liquid discharge thesis from the inside out
⚡ Why a 4-person investment team and a 2-month decision cycle out-deal-flow every other corporate venture capital fund in the water industry
🎯 Why Ginger Rothrock calls the water industry "inevitable", and how HG Ventures is positioning for the next decade of water tech exits

🥜 IN A NUTSHELL 🥜
Who are the biggest water tech investors and venture capital firms in 2026?
The most active water tech investors by deal count are Burnt Island Ventures, Echo River Capital, PureTerra Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, and HG Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of The Heritage Group, ranked 5th globally despite water being only 18% of its thesis.

What is corporate venture capital (CVC) and how does it differ from traditional venture capital?
Corporate venture capital is venture investing from inside a corporation rather than from an independent fund, which means a CVC like HG Ventures can hold portfolio companies for a decade or more without the LP pressure that kills the average CVC at year four.

How do you pitch a venture capital firm to fund a water tech startup?
Most water tech VCs filter pitches on whether the fund can actually help you commercially, whether you understand the market problem (especially who your real competition is), and whether you can tell a clear story under five minutes, and most water tech founders lose by leading with the technology.

Is the water industry a good long-term investment in 2026?
Yes, water tech venture capital deal counts have quadrupled since 2018, but capital flows mostly through specialist venture capital, corporate venture capital and private equity rather than the public market, because most water stocks underperformed in the 2020s.

What is industrial water reuse, and what is zero liquid discharge?
Industrial water reuse is treating a facility's wastewater on-site and recycling it back into the process, while zero liquid discharge is the extreme version where 100% of the water is recovered, and both are accelerating because of rising freshwater costs, tightening discharge regulations and corporate ESG targets.

#️⃣ Mentioned Links #️⃣
HG Ventures — hgventures.com

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The First Water Sector Unicorn Wants to IPO. But Wall Street kinda forgot how to buy water...

Early-stage water tech funding quadrupled in seven years. Private equity's share of water M&A doubled in a decade, with a record 165 PE-led acquisitions in a single year. The bench of PE-owned water platforms grew from 42 companies in 2015 to nearly 600 in 2025. And the sector just minted its first twice-unicorn - Gradiant - with a Series E at a $2 billion valuation on Day 1 of the Global Water Summit 2026! So, will Gradiant IPO?

Four all-time highs at once... but the fifth dimension - the public market - went the other way. IPOs in the 2020s are a pale echo of the 2010. So I flew to Madrid to ask the people building the machine (the VCs, the PE platforms, the strategics, the bankers, the entrepreneurs) a single question: is this closed-loop water-capital machine a feature of a mature sector, or a $300 billion pressure cooker about to crack?

🌶️ KEY SPICES 🌶️
💵 108 funding rounds in early-stage water tech in 2025 alone vs. 33 in 2018: 3.3× the count and roughly 5× the dollars
🏗️ 42 → ~600 PE-owned water platforms in a decade, with 165 PE acquisitions in 2025 (the most ever)... but 80 of them sub-$10M targets: high velocity, low ticket
🦄 Gradiant's Series E at $2B valuation announced Day 1 of GWS 2026. What Anurag Bajpayee told me: "We have to be ready to go public because we want to control our destiny"
💰 Four specialist water VC funds raising at the exact same time: a feature or a weakness?
🏢 Summa Equity (€10B+ Nordic thematic PE) entering water for the first time, targeting the missing middle

🥜 IN A NUTSHELL 🥜
Is water tech actually a good investment in 2026? Water-tech venture capital just hit an all-time high. Early-stage funding rounds quadrupled in seven years (from 33 in 2018 to 108 in 2025) and total water VC inflow exceeded $1 billion in 2024. Private equity also set a record with 165 water-company acquisitions in 2025, roughly double its 2015 share of the market. The catch: with almost zero water IPOs in a decade, investor returns flow mostly through PE-to-PE handoffs and strategic acquisitions, not the public market.

What is Gradiant and why does its $2 billion Series E matter? Gradiant is a Boston-area water-treatment company specializing in industrial-water reuse, brine management, and ultrapure water for semiconductor and AI data-center fabs. They just announced a Series E at a $2 billion valuation, making it water tech's first twice-unicorn. CEO Anurag Bajpayee announced on camera that the company is preparing to go public, which would be the first venture-stage water IPO in over a decade.

Why are there no water IPOs if the sector is growing so fast? The public-market track record is brutal. Of Global Water Intelligence's 2022 list of 30 listed water stocks, 21 lost more than two-thirds of their value by 2026. The listed water universe is small (about 139 stocks worth roughly $122 billion in total) and too illiquid to absorb new venture-stage water IPOs. Instead, the sector built its own private-market exit machine.

#️⃣ Mentioned Links #️⃣
WTF Is Happening with Water Stocks? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flen_vwx0kQ
5 Water Tech Investment Facts (that will blow your mind): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCfcigu_oPQ
Global Water Intelligence — globalwaterintel.com (check out their new WIN and Euro WIN AI platforms!)

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On April 30, 2026, CRH plc (NYSE: CRH) announced a $700 million agreement to acquire Axius Water from KKR and XPV Water Partners - instantly making the Irish-American building materials giant one of the largest water infrastructure players in North America. If CRH acquires Axius, what's next?

Most investors missed it, so I thought I'd decode it!
Here are the 10 things you need to see.

So you got it, CRH acquires Axius. Here's the deal in 30 seconds:
• Buyer: CRH plc - a $77B market cap building materials company most water investors don't track
• Target: Axius Water - a wastewater treatment platform built by KKR and XPV Water Partners through a multi-year roll-up
• Price: $700M (reported)
• Sellers: KKR (Global Impact Fund) and XPV Water Partners
• Strategic logic: bolts wastewater treatment onto CRH's existing water infrastructure portfolio (Hydro International, Oldcastle Infrastructure)

What's actually new here - and why it matters for water investors:
00:00 - On your Bingo Card?
02:30 #1: The Cast
07:35 #2: The Substance
11:40 #3: The Number
16:23 #4: The Timing
20:54 #5: The Macro Reality
24:40 #6: The Credibility
28:26 #7: Inside the Platform
32:28 #8: The Synergy Story
35:17 #9: The Risks
39:58 #10: The Sector Signal

📰 Sources & further reading:
• CRH Q1 2026 earnings call transcript: https://www.crh.com/investors/results-presentations/
• KKR Global Impact Fund: https://www.kkr.com/approach/sustainability/sustainable-investing/trends
• XPV Water Partners portfolio: https://xpvwaterpartners.com/companies
• Axius Water: https://www.axiuswater.com/
• My newsletter on Water Infrastructure: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-water-bill-4x-what-everyone-thinks-antoine-walter-3rqnc/

🎙️ If we don't know each other, Hi, I'm Antoine Walter! I help newcomer investors decode the water tech sector. Each week, I break down a water deal (like here, when CRH acquires Axius), technology, or company through an investor-forward lens. No acronyms, no jargon (hopefully) just the signals that matter.

🔔 Subscribe for weekly water investment briefs: youtube.com/channel/UCsMC1BYAun2JtMT177jTGOw/
🎧 Podcast version: https://feed.ausha.co/br23DCZ1GnG3
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinewalter1

⚠️ Disclaimer: This video is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes investment advice. Always do your own research.

#CRH #AxiusWater #KKR #XPVWaterPartners #WaterInvesting #WaterMA #WaterStocks #WaterInfrastructure #WastewaterTreatment #WaterTech #PrivateEquity #ImpactInvesting #ESG #WaterSector

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