Aquapreneur investment story: Indra Water BOX 3 Indra delivers electrically driven, decentralized wastewater treatment systems that require no added chemicals in primary treatment. Their solution recovers up to 99% of wastewater for non-potable reuse – ideal for industrial, commercial and domestic users seeking on-site water circularity. Based in India, Indra emerged to tackle the high cost and operational complexity of traditional wastewater treatment. Its smart systems are fully automated and benefit from smart monitoring, dynamic treatment optimization and predictive maintenance. Its vision is to enable wastewater reuse in contexts where centralized treatment infrastructure is limited or struggling.Indra was selected as an aquapreneur in 2023. It secured $4 million in a Series A round in January 2024, led by Emerald Technology Ventures and Mela Ventures. As of 2025, it is now supplying wastewater treatment plants at HCL office buildings, supporting HCL’s growing water stewardship. Additional investment enabled it to scale up its operations, secure regulatory approvals and support for reuse frameworks, and fast-track wider regional expansion. Aquapreneur investment story: PYDRO BOX 4 PYDRO empowers utilities, through a sensor- enabled service model, to detect leaks early, reduce losses and modernize operations without batteries, maintenance overheads or complex integration. It helps utilities reduce the time and cost required to find and fix leaks by 30–40%. With $39 billion in annual losses, rising regulatory pressure and a shrinking workforce, water utilities are being forced to modernize globally. Yet most water networks remain unmonitored, with utilities losing on average 30% of the water they source and treat. PYDRO aims to tackle the lack of real-time, data-driven visibility that makes it currently nearly impossible to manage these challenges proactively.Selected as an aquapreneur in 2024 and supported by UpLink, PYDRO closed an oversubscribed $1.3 million pre-Series A in May 2025. The round was led by Connect the Drops, with support from the EIC Fund, Berlin Angel Fund and several business angels. The solution is already being trialled by major utilities in Italy and industry leaders such as SUEZ. With funding in place to scale operations and enter new markets, the team is now focused on securing strategic partners and investors ahead of their Series A, with the EIC Fund committed to matching and Connect the Drops ready to lead again. Water innovation and climate risk Climate risks are interconnected, and no single solution can address them all. However, water innovations offer targeted opportunities to reduce vulnerability and support resilience in sectors already experiencing the effects of a changing climate. The table below highlights how specific water solutions align with addressing the intensifying adverse impacts of human-caused climate change, as outlined in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.40 Water innovations have significant potential to address climate-related risks, but their impact depends on more than just the technology itself. Adoption and scaling are critical to moving beyond isolated pilots and achieving meaningful, system- wide change. Investors must consider the policy and regulatory environment, which can greatly influence how effectively these solutions can be deployed. For example, the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive promotes higher treatment standards, enforces polluter-pays principles and encourages circular water use, creating favourable conditions for wider adoption of treatment, monitoring and reuse technologies.41 Understanding these dynamics is essential to evaluating both the risks and opportunities of investing in water innovation. To further explore how this start-up landscape can relate to any investment thesis, this paper will now turn to exploring where the opportunities are for investors across different investor types, risk profiles and industry verticals. Investing in Water: Aligning Investment Strategies with Water Innovation 15

Investing in Water Aligning Investment Strategies with Water Innovation 2025