Vital Lyfe, a Hawthorne, California-based startup developing portable systems that can produce purified water from a range of natural sources, including seawater, has raised $24 million in financing to accelerate manufacturing and expand early deployments as it prepares to bring its first consumer-ready products to market in 2026.
The company said the funding includes more than $18 million in seed capital, with the remainder coming from committed debt financing. The round was led by Interlagos and General Catalyst, with participation from Generational Partners, Cantos, Space VC, and Also Capital.
Vital Lyfe positions its platform as a decentralized alternative to traditional water infrastructure, targeting scenarios where fixed treatment plants, pipelines, and grid-dependent systems are impractical or unavailable. The company’s systems are built with an emphasis on resilience and autonomy, designed to operate across a wide range of environmental conditions, including marine settings where desalination can be particularly difficult.
Founded by former SpaceX engineers Jon Criss and Andrew Harner, Vital Lyfe said it is applying aerospace-grade engineering approaches to water production, aiming to enable on-demand access to filtered water in remote and high-stakes environments. The company is expanding early field deployments with maritime groups, NGOs, and off grid users, using those deployments to validate performance, refine durability, and improve field readiness ahead of broader distribution.
The new capital is expected to support the transition from prototypes to scaled production, while advancing product development and commercialization efforts as the company builds toward its initial consumer rollout. Vital Lyfe describes its longer term objective as establishing a new category of autonomous water production that can help meet growing global demand for reliable, distributed water access.
Vital Lyfe’s mission statement is “Water Without Limits,” and it says its technology is intended to convert virtually any naturally occurring water source into purified water anywhere on Earth.
KEY QUOTES:
“This funding is a major milestone in our mission to bring clean water directly to the people and organizations who need it most. For too long, clean water access has been constrained by outdated, centralized infrastructure. With this funding, we have the resources to accelerate our roadmap and work towards scaling a new technology – one that puts reliable, on-demand water generation in the hands of communities everywhere,”
Jon Criss, CEO and Founder of Vital Lyfe
“This raise gives us the momentum to transition from validated prototypes to scaled production and real-world impact. We’re building technology that is resilient, adaptable, and capable of transforming how communities access water without waiting for infrastructure to catch up. Our goal is simple but ambitious: clean water on demand, anywhere.”
Andrew Harner, COO and Founder of Vital Lyfe
“Jon Criss and Andrew Harner are some of the best referenced founders we’ve come across. It’s rare to find exceptional engineers that also have so much experience scaling manufacturing and driving commercialization. We spent considerable time evaluating various companies building in this space, and as soon as we met them we knew this was the team that was going to make this happen.”
Grant Gregory, General Partner at Cantos
