水技术强调韧性推动水技术发展势头（英）2025

EMERGING TECH RESEARCHWater TechEmphasis on resilience drives water tech momentumPitchBook is a Morningstar company providing the most comprehensive, mostaccurate, and hard-to-find data for professionals doing business in the private markets.Key takeaways•VC investment in water tech remains strong despite a dip in 2019 and 2020:VC deal value in water tech peaked in 2023 at $863.9 million, followed by a slightdecline to $768.2 million in 2024—still the second-highest year on record. Q12025 data suggests the sector is on track to maintain this level of investment, farabove the 2018-2022 average of $390.3 million.•Valuations and deal sizes are trending upward:The median pre-moneyvaluation has more than doubled since 2020, reaching $16.9 million in 2024,with Q1 2025 holding steady. The median deal size also hit a new high of $2.6million in 2024.•The North American region and water resource management segmentdominate the sector:From a regional perspective, North America consistentlyleads in VC deal value, accounting for 77.7% of the total deal value in thepeak year of 2023. Looking at segments within water tech, water resourcemanagement attracted the most funding over the past year, followed by water-located hardware & processes. The largest subsegment by a considerable marginwas water treatment.•Policy and regulatory shifts are creating both opportunities and risks:Supportive policies and global regulations continue to drive demand for watertech, especially in industrial and municipal applications. However, recentUS policy changes—such as the EPA’s rollback on PFAS limits—pose risks tosubsegments such as water quality & monitoring and water treatment, whiletariffs and permitting complexities add further uncertainty. 1 12671214 OverviewThe water tech space can be broad or narrow, depending on the definition.Segments of water tech almost always include water treatment and desalination,water efficiency/conservation, and water monitoring and quality measurement.Wider definitions can also encompass mineral extraction from brines, waterproduction, aquatic-energy-generation hardware, ocean carbon sequestration,aquatic ecosystem protection, coastal defense, and water infrastructuretechnologies. For this note, we tracked 641 water tech companies using thefollowing taxonomy for the water tech space:•Water resource management:A broad segment covering technologies thatfocus on water as a resource.-Water efficiency:Technologies such as water management, optimization,and conservation platforms for commercial and industrial applications inaddition to residential use. This also encompasses water flow monitoring andleak detection, plus water reuse technologies.-Water treatment:One of the largest categories, this comprises developers ofall kinds of water treatment technologies besides desalination technologies,which are categorized separately. There is some overlap with the desalinationand water quality & monitoring categories because companies commonlyoperate across these areas. Companies in the water treatment spaceprimarily serve commercial and industrial clients, though residential andmining applications are also somewhat common.-Desalination:Technologies for which the primary focus is desalination,though many also include water treatment capabilities.-Mineral extraction:Technologies that extract useful minerals from watersources, such as seawater, wastewater, and brines.-Water quality & monitoring:Monitoring technologies that focus on waterquality rather than flow, volume, or leaks. This includes biological andchemical-sensing technologies across agricultural, industrial, municipal, andresidential applications.-Atmospheric water production:Technologies that extract usable water fromthe atmosphere, typically for use in regions with water scarcity challenges.•Energy:Comprises low-carbon energy generation technologies situated inbodies of water. These technologies may or may not derive energy from water.-Wind:Turbine technologies that produce renewable energy from windcurrents. These technologies typically focus on the supporting platform orstructure, which is used as a base for conventional wind energy hardware,though offshore designs are often larger than their terrestrial counterparts. 2 -Solar:Similar to water-located wind energy generation, floating solartechnologies are primarily focused on supporting structures, which servesomewhat conventional solar hardware but are often adapted to be moreresilient to the effects of water contact. Unlike floating wind energytechnologies, floating solar technologies have a more balanced mix of oceanand inland water sitings.-Wave, tidal & other:Wave and tidal energy technologies derive energyfrom changing tides or flowing water currents from either oceans or rivers.This category also includes a few thermal-ocean-energy companies, whichtypically use technologies focused on smaller-scale energy production forocean-based hardware.•Water-located hardware & processes:Encompass non-energ