Bluewater Bio has been acquired by Aquavest

Arrowpoint Advisory’s Industrials sector team has advised the shareholders of Bluewater Bio on its sale to Aquavest Ltd, a business backed by Verdane and Scott Capital Partners.

Bluewater Bio provides proprietary technology solutions that enable more efficient and sustainable water reuse operations. Its technology has so far made more than 1.8 billion tonnes of treated wastewater available for reuse, providing recycled water for irrigation, clean water for rivers and completing the water cycle in a sustainable way.

Having been founded in 2007, the existing management team arrived in 2015 and restructured the company that has since delivered exceptional growth.

Salica Investments, acquired a majority stake in Bluewater Bio in December 2020 through the Salica Environmental Technologies Fund.

Tom Bradley, Managing Partner at Salica Investments, said: “We want to offer our congratulations to the management team at Bluewater Bio who have done an outstanding job in building a market leader in the water technology space. We are proud of our association with another UK technology leader and pleased to add substantially to the significant returns already generated for Salica’s Limited Partners.”

Richard Haddon, CEO of Bluewater Bio, commented: “We are grateful to the team at Salica for their support for the business in the last five years and we look forward to the future with optimism. Bluewater Bio is well positioned to continue its growth trajectory and Verdane’s experience of partnering with sustainability-focused, science-based businesses makes them an excellent partner for Bluewater Bio going forward. This investment provides the resources and strategic support needed to expand our reach and deepen our impact, while staying true to our mission of enabling more sustainable water reuse worldwide and keeping true to our values of customer care and providing high quality solutions.”

Bluewater Bio works with clients across multiple geographies, helping them improve efficiency and performance of their water infrastructures, while improving the environmental impact. Its solutions utilise less energy, less land and fewer chemicals than competing technologies.

Aquavest will partner with Bluewater Bio’s management team to support the company’s next phase of development, broadening global access to its technology and overall offering. The partnership will focus on accelerating growth across existing markets as well as international opportunities, building on Bluewater Bio’s strong commercial capabilities, while preserving the company’s long-term approach to sustainability.

Richard went on to add: “A big thank you to Tom and the team at Arrowpoint Advisory for being an incredibly supportive and committed partner throughout the transaction process. They demonstrated impressive knowledge of our market and proved to be astute negotiators, succeeding in balancing the interests of each stakeholder group to ultimately deliver the best possible outcome.”

Tom Smith, Managing Director at Arrowpoint Advisory concluded: “We are delighted to have advised Richard and the team at Bluewater Bio and Salica on this transaction and feel that in Aquavest the ideal partner to maximise the business’s growth potential over the coming years has been secured. As a leading UK Industrial Technology company, with a highly differentiated offering and compelling commercially proven solutions, Bluewater Bio is exactly the kind of business that we love advising.”

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