Food and beverage manufacturers are the target of a new Ecolab investment in wastewater filtration company ZwitterCo, whose systems are intended to help recover utility-grade water from difficult industrial flows.
ZwitterCo announced the investment Thursday, Oct. 22. It said the companies plan to combine its membrane systems with Ecolab's water treatment programs, chemistry, digital monitoring and on-site expertise. The announcement did not disclose the investment's value, Ecolab's ownership stake or other deal terms.
The company named brewing, dairy, grain processing and protein processing as possible applications. Wastewater from those sectors can contain organic waste, cleaning chemicals and other compounds, ZwitterCo said, making treatment difficult. The systems are intended to recover utility-grade water, but the announcement gave no expected recovery volumes, water savings or performance figures.
ZwitterCo's company blog says the partnership has “already broken ground” in Mexico and Western Europe. It identified no customer or facility and gave no project timetable. The company's release cited water scarcity and pressure on food and beverage manufacturers to curb water use without compromising quality, safety or productivity.
Nicolas Granucci, Ecolab's EVP and GM for Global Food & Beverage, said manufacturers are seeking “practical ways to reduce water risk.” He cited Ecolab's more than a century of work developing solutions to improve customer performance while protecting resources, and described the investment as a way to advance water circularity at scale.
ZwitterCo co-founder and CEO Alex Rappaport said Ecolab brings experience in water treatment, digital monitoring and customer operations. He said the partnership could help manufacturers “turn difficult wastewater streams into reusable water” and make industrial water reuse easier to deploy and scale.
ZwitterCo previously announced a $58.4 million Series B in July 2024, led by Evok Innovations. That earlier funding round was separate from the Ecolab investment. The current announcement gave no date for a performance update.
