ImpactAlpha, Nov. 4 – Virginia-based Micronic Technologies raised $3 million for its water purification technology. The Center for Innovative Technology’s CIT GAP Funds and The Pearl Fund led the investment, with participation from CAV Angels.
Micronic’s “zero liquid discharge” water purification technology treats wastewater and reuse from industries as well as municipal landfills, while reducing wastewater volume by 95% and removing over 99% of contaminants.
Micronic is women-led, by CEO and co-founder Karen Sorber, and is located in an Opportunity Zone in southwest Virginia. Local advocacy groups and place-based investors are building a financial ecosystem to invest in a post-coal future (see, “How place-based strategies in Virginia and other states are leveraging private capital for public good”).
- Opportunity Zone opportunities. Investments in an operating business like Micronic are countering early signals that opportunity funds are focused only on real estate deals. In South Carolina, GEM Opportunity Fund and a trio of food and packaging firms are investing $314 million in the Agriculture Technology Campus, which plans to employ more than 1,500 people to cultivate produce using controlled environment agriculture. In Seattle, OZ Navigator closed on a $2.65 million property near the Othello light rail station to build mixed-income housing, including 164 affordable units. National Equity Fund and Fifth Third Bank closed a $25 million opportunity zone fund to expand workforce and low-income rental housing in Chicago, Cincinnati and Kalamazoo. See more OZ deaflow on Economic Innovation Group’s Opportunity Zone activity map.
- Go deeper. Opportunity Virginia is hosting workshops on equitable development, affordable housing, operating businesses, economic development best practices and other Opportunity Zone topics, November 10-19. Register now.
