Emerald backs $4M Series A for Waterly’s push to digitize utility operations
Emerald announced on August 14, 2025, that it has invested in a $4 million Series A financing round for Waterly, a U.S.-based software company digitizing the operations of water and wastewater utilities across North America. Emerald is participating in the round, which was led by Burnt Island Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by Chris Sosnowski, Waterly replaces clipboard-and-spreadsheet workflows with a mobile-first, cloud-native software platform designed specifically for the needs of utility operators. In five years, the company has scaled to support over 5,000 users and more than 1,000 water and wastewater systems, including American Water.
“Waterly is solving one of the water sector’s most entrenched problems with elegance and empathy: how to make digital transformation accessible to thousands of utilities still operating with pen and paper,” said Clayton MacDougald, investment director at Emerald, in a press release. “Chris and his team have built an intuitive, secure and scalable platform that’s beloved by operators—and we’re excited to support their mission of bringing smart water tools to every corner of the market.”
Simplifying operations, empowering operators
The company’s flagship product, Rounds, digitizes data collection during facility rounds, transforming it into a structured, auditable dataset used for compliance reporting, operational insights and organizational memory. It is compatible with SCADA and manual inputs and is actively used by operators on smartphones and tablets on a daily basis, becoming in essence an extension of the operational team.
The company’s expansion includes an integrated asset management module (Assets) acquired through the 2024 acquisition of OpWorks, and an Enterprise offering that aggregates operational data across utility portfolios.
The company is actively digitizing a vast and underserved segment: more than 80% of water and wastewater systems in North America still use manual methods for data tracking, according to Emerald. The company focuses on a variety of customer segments from small to large utilities, contract operators and investor-owned utilities along with several industrial customers. Its pricing, based on treated flow rather than seat licenses, makes it especially attractive to budget-conscious customers.
“Waterly started with a simple belief: water operators deserve better tools,” said Waterly CEO Chris Sosnowski in a press release. “It’s been amazing to see how much we’ve been able to change with just a small team and a lot of heart. Now, with Burnt Island Ventures and Emerald in our corner, we’re ready to go even bigger—helping thousands more water and wastewater heroes do their jobs with less stress and more confidence to deliver safer, smarter service to their communities.”