Fund - Susterra Capital Partners

The Water Impact Fund aims to contribute to transforming the global water and cleantech industry by investing into companies with evidence-based, cost-effective, proven technologically-innovative solutions, which deliver access, affordability and quality of water and sanitation services.

FACTS and business case

Worldwide more than 2 billion people have limited access to clean water and have to use water which is contaminated at some level.
More than half the world’s population – and approximately half of global grain production will be at risk due to water stress by 2050, if business-as-usual persists.
Worldwide, 80% of wastewater is realeased to the environment without being collected and treated. It is seen as a burden to be disposed to, though it is a valuable resource.
Climate change manifests itself primarily through changes in the water cycle, and its impacts have direct consequences for water security.
In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change adaptation will have to build climate resilience.
Water investments are logically linked to investment in food safety, public health, sustainable consumption and production, and conservation of ecosystems.
“Water is to adaptation what energy is to mitigation” – major climate adaptation challenges include water security issues with respect to increases in water scarcity, drought and flood risks, and increasing water temperature affecting water quality and biodiversity.
The ‘Sanitation Economy’ is a robust marketplace of products and services, renewable resource flows, data and information that could help transform future cities, communities and businesses, that can be smart, sustainable, innovative, cost saving and revenue generating.
Financing the market entry and/or the growth phase of these technology providers is an opportunity to achieve 2-3x Cash-on-Cash returns.

Investment strategy

The Fund’s investment strategy is to invest in growth stage small- and medium-size companies, which have developed and/or are operating innovative and scalable proven technologies in the water and sanitation sector and are seeking to market their products/services beyond their existing geographical footprint.
The Fund will limit its investments to European-based portfolio companies (with a special focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the D-A-CH region), which seek to sell their services cross-border throughout Europe and/or globally.
The Susterra team has screened over 100 potential targets to date, with 9 companies now under NDA. An additional 27 companies are in the immediate pipeline with a potential investment value of c. €52 million.

model investee company

A model investee company will have a number of the following characteristics, such as:

providing access to water supply– and creating sustainable and reliable supply systems for new water infrastructure;
increasing water provision efficiency–improving irrigation, leakage detection, installing smart meters and creating effective solutions for sustainable use of available resources;
improving water quality and treatment facilities–developing cutting-edge filtration technologies and disinfection chemicals;
have clear SDGs– when targeting environmental impact, where the impact should be well-defined, integrated into the business model and be capable of systematic and objective measurement;
have a realistic exit strategy– which does not compromise their long-term environmental impact goals.