French public investment bank Bpifrance has co-led a €3.1 million ($3.5 million) seed funding round in Kumulus, a Tunisia-based water technology startup aiming to improve access to drinking water in regions facing water scarcity.
The round, which includes contributions from the France 2030 sovereign innovation fund (SGPI), the Île-de-France regional council, and regional venture funds like PlusVC, Khalys Venture, and Flat6Labs, will support Kumulus’s expansion across Europe, North Africa, and the Gulf. Strategic investors also joined the round, including Spadel, a leading European bottled water company, and several family offices with operations in Europe and North Africa.
Founded by Iheb Triki and Wassim Ben Larbi, Kumulus designs and manufactures atmospheric water generators — machines that condense humidity from the air and transform it into drinking water. Its flagship product, Kumulus Boks, is built for collective and industrial use, targeting areas where infrastructure is limited or unreliable.
In a statement, Triki said the new funding will allow the company to “scale both commercially and technically,” as Kumulus pushes to consolidate its operations in France, Spain, and Tunisia while also preparing to enter Saudi Arabia — identified by the company as a priority market due to its acute water stress and demand for decentralized solutions.
“We are grateful for the trust our new and existing investors have shown,” Triki said. “We are especially proud to welcome Spadel as a strategic partner. Their long-term commitment to sustainability aligns closely with our mission.”
For Spadel, the partnership signals a move beyond bottled water. Clément Yvorra, international development lead at the group, noted: “The world urgently needs alternative solutions to the growing water scarcity challenge. Kumulus offers a compelling model — generating clean water on-site, with no packaging or transport involved.”
Bpifrance’s investment in Kumulus reflects its growing activity in Africa’s startup ecosystem — particularly in Francophone countries. The public bank, one of Europe’s most active LPs, has increasingly been making both direct investments in African startups and indirect ones via regional funds.
Earlier this year, Bpifrance supported ToumAI, a Moroccan AI startup focused on African language processing, through a $1 million pre-seed round led by Launch Africa Ventures. That deal came alongside Bpifrance’s broader participation in Partech Africa II, the continent’s largest VC fund to date at €280 million, backed in part through a €350 million Africa co-investment partnership Bpifrance launched in 2021.
Bpifrance’s recent deals in Francophone Africa include participation in Senegalese communication platform LAfricaMobile’s €6.5 million Series A, and Ivorian staffing startup OBO Interim’s €1.8 million round to modernize recruitment across West Africa. It is also overseeing the Fonds Maghreb, a €100 million fund launched to facilitate French business expansion into Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco through equity and loan financing for SMEs.
For Kumulus, which began in Tunisia and has gradually expanded into European markets, Bpifrance’s support offers both capital and access. The startup is now positioning itself not just as a water tech company, but as an enabler of water resilience globally, particularly in regions vulnerable to climate change and poor infrastructure.
“We’re building solutions where centralised infrastructure doesn’t work — or doesn’t exist,” said Triki. “Our goal is not only to democratise access to safe drinking water but to do it in a way that is scalable, sustainable, and independent.”
As water access becomes a central development and climate issue, Kumulus’s next steps — particularly in the Gulf — will be closely watched. With Bpifrance and Spadel behind it, the startup now has both the public and private backing to attempt a more global play in one of the world’s most pressing sectors.