By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media
After raising over $100 million for an impact fund, WaterEquity, an affiliate of Academy Award winner Matt Damon’s Water.org, has begun deploying capital. WaterEquity’s private equity and infrastructure strategy, the Water & Climate Resilience Fund, has made its maiden investment, a $5 million stake in Savant Group, the parent company of SunCulture, a Kenya-based startup specializing in solar-powered irrigation systems. The deal places a spotlight on resilient water solutions and their role in elevating smallholder farming in the face of climate challenges.
Backed by heavy-hitters like Microsoft, Starbucks, Xylem, Ecolab, Reckitt and retailer Gap, among others, WaterEquity’s strategy emphasizes minority equity stakes of $2 million to $15 million per deal in growth-stage companies and infrastructure platforms over five-to-seven year horizons.
WaterEquity Head of Private Equity and Infrastructure Investments leem Remtula stated, “This investment reflects a milestone in our new strategy to support projects and companies that address critical infrastructure gaps and also build long-term resilience against increasing water stress…At WaterEquity, our Water & Climate Resilience Fund is designed to invest in decentralized, resilient solutions that can scale equitably. SunCulture exemplifies the kind of company we seek out – locally grounded, adaptation-focused and committed to expanding water access to underserved communities.”
The majority of SunCulture’s users are primarily smallholder farmers using the pumps to tap groundwater for drinking, cooking and cleaning alongside crop irrigation. The technology addresses a dire gap: more than three-quarters of f Africa’s rural population still hauls water from distant sources, a burden that disproportionately falls on women and girls.
The deal highlights an untapped opportunity in water infrastructure, where decentralized innovations like SunCulture’s can bolster agricultural productivity in water-stressed regions. By providing dependable, solar-powered irrigation without relying on the grid, these systems increase crop production and grower profits, while weaving in smart strategies to adapt to climate shifts in Sub-Saharan Africa.
SunCulture CEO and Co-Founder Samir Ibrahim commented, “WaterEquity understands that water investments don’t fall into a single box – scaling water infrastructure can deliver both incredible impact and strong commercial returns. We’re proud to be the first investment from their new fund and look forward to growing our business together.”
The fund’s geographic focus spans Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa, positioning WaterEquity to capture its share of the $100 billion-plus global market for sustainable water technology, blending social returns with the potential for risk-adjusted financial upside. Looking ahead, WaterEquity is seeking more opportunities in local public-private partnerships, commercial water projects and tech-driven platforms for water treatment and distribution.
WaterEquity partners with non-profit Water.org to create innovative, market-oriented financing solutions that bring critical water resources to the world’s most vulnerable populations. For this particular project, Water.org is joining forces with SunCulture to offer practical technical guidance, such as a specialized education initiative on water quality that empowers small-scale farmers to better oversee, sustain and defend their sources of potable water.
Water.org, co-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon, is lending technical muscle, including water quality education and a greenhouse gas audit to amplify impact. As WaterEquity’s pipeline swells across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this investment signals a maturing opportunity for institutional players eyeing water as the next frontier in ag-adjacent ESG assets.
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