Burnt Island Ventures

Burnt Island Ventures exists to find, fund, and support the best founders in water. The firm treats the global water sector as a trillion dollar industry hiding in plain sight, a market where aging infrastructure, tightening regulation, workforce turnover, and climate stress are pushing utilities and industrial customers to adopt new technology faster than at any point in decades. Its founding argument is that climate change is water change, so building resilience to floods, droughts, contamination, and scarcity is inseparable from the water business itself. Across two funds, a $30 million debut vehicle and a $50 million second fund, both anchored by the water technology company Xylem, Burnt Island backs early stage companies in advanced treatment and filtration, water data and artificial intelligence, digital productivity tools for utilities and operators, infrastructure resilience, and water reuse. The firm pairs capital with a deep operator network drawn from across the water industry, and it publishes research, a newsletter, and a podcast, The Fundamental Molecule, to widen the sector's talent and capital base. Fund I was deployed across 18 companies, and the firm reports top decile performance for that vintage.

$50M, 2025 Fund II close ($30M Fund I, 2022) AUM 63/100 Power Score™ 2020 Founded New York, NY
Water Climate Sustainability
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Signature Exit

No confirmed public exit yet; the firm's notable positions remain private.

Key Partners & Leadership

Founder and Managing Partner

Firm Timeline

2020
Tom Ferguson founded Burnt Island Ventures as a venture firm dedicated to early stage water companies.
2022
Closed its debut fund at $30 million to back early stage water startups.
2025
Closed Fund II at $50 million with Xylem as anchor investor, after deploying Fund I across 18 companies with two exits reported to date.