DCVC 2025 Q2 update

Greetings, friends of DCVC!

It was another terrific quarter for our portfolio companies — from solid funding to landmark deals, unprece­dented performance results, and important government contracts. We hope you enjoy the highlights below.

Last week, we released our third annual Deep Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties Report, which explains the guiding principles behind our investing and outlines the areas we’re most excited about right now. This year, we focused on the prospect of an American industrial renaissance: we see great opportunity in revi­tal­izing domestic manu­fac­turing and supply chains; ensuring that our energy is secure, clean, and reliably distributed; and sparking new tech­no­log­ical innovation in our nation’s defense. You can find the full report here.

To celebrate the report’s release, we were delighted to host our inauguralDCVC Deep Tech Week Salon in San Francisco at MOMA. The energy in the room was fantastic: deep tech relies on community in order to thrive, so thanks to all of you who joined us!

FUNDING HIGHLIGHTS

DCVC Flagship & DCVC Climate

Alta Resource Tech­nolo­gies, whose advanced mineral separation technology is of high interest to the U.S. government, announced a $4.4 million Seed extension co-led by DCVC and with partic­i­pa­tion from In-Q-Tel, bringing the company’s total Seed funding to $10 million.

Fervo Energy announced $206 million in project financing for Cape Station to advance its push toward 500 MW online by 2028, part of a permitted 2 GW expansion to unlock firm geothermal power at scale.

Halter raised $100 million in Series D funding, led by BOND Capital (DCVC partic­i­pated), at a $1 billion valuation. The New Zealand – based company is rapidly expanding to ranches across the U.S., helping ranchers raise more cattle with less labor, land, and environmental impact.

Insight M announced its $30 million Series E, led by Morgan Stanley and with partic­i­pa­tion from DCVC, to scale methane detection via aerial sensors, supporting energy operators that since 2014 have prevented over 110 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions — one of the largest impacts among any company.

Mainspring Energy announced its $258 million financing, joined by DCVC Climate, to build flameless, low-temperature modular linear generators that run on a variety of fuels (like biogas, hydrogen, natural gas, and ammonia) with near-zero NOx emissions and instant dispatchability.

Radiant closed a $165 million Series C, led by DCVC Climate, to advance its Kaleidos microre­actor — a portable, zero-emissions power source that could bring clean energy to remote communities, disaster zones, and defense operations.

Reality Defender announced strategic investments from BNY, Samsung Next, and Fusion Fund to accelerate its mission to protect critical commu­ni­ca­tion channels from increas­ingly sophis­ti­cated deepfake imper­son­ations — one of the most urgent security challenges of the AI era.

Twelve secured a strategic investment from United Airlines Ventures to support its SAF facility, AirPlant One, which plans to produce 50,000 gallons of SAF annually, potentially reducing lifecycle emissions by up to 90% compared to conven­tional jet fuel.

Zeno Power raised a $50 million Series B to help the company begin producing nuclear batteries for commercial and defense customers by 2027, toward unlocking resilient, long-duration power for the most extreme and off-grid environments.

DCVC Bio

Grove Biopharma announced its $30 million Series A, led by DCVC Bio, to develop therapies targeting previously intractable intra­cel­lular disease­tar­gets to fight cancer and neurodegeneration.

Solu Ther­a­peu­tics raised a $41 million Series A, in which DCVC Bio partic­i­pated, to support clinical evaluation of STX-0712, drive additional pipeline programs, and target new appli­ca­tions of the company’s proprietary CyTAC and TicTAC platforms, which are enabling more precise and effective elimination of disease-driving cells.
 

OTHER NEWS

DCVC Flagship & DCVC Climate

Brimstone signed an LOI with Oklahoma’s Dolese Bros. Co. to supply materials for its upcoming Rock Refinery — a first-of-its-kind commercial plant that will produce portland cement, SCM, and smelter-grade alumina, a material critical to U.S. aluminum supply chains and industrial resilience.

Capella Space announced plans to be acquired by IonQ, a leading quantum computing and networking company, to create the world’s first space-based quantum key distri­b­u­tion network — a critical outcome for America’s defense and commercial security leadership.

Fervo announced unprece­dented drilling results — 15,765 feet deep, drilled in 16 days, and projected to reach 520°F — and signed a 31 MW PPA with Shell, which will make Shell Energy the first offtaker to receive electrons from Phase I of Cape Station.

Fortem officially opened its new state-of-the-art head­quar­ters and manu­fac­turing facility in Lindon, UT, which more than doubles its previous capacity to produce its battle-tested tech­nolo­gies. CEO Jon Gruen also published a powerful op-ed in the WSJ: Ukraine’s Drone Attack Points to a U.S. Vulner­a­bility.

Oklo and Radiant were both selected by the DIU for its Advanced Nuclear Power for Instal­la­tions (ANPI) program to demonstrate the ability to deliver compliant, safe, secure, and reliable nuclear power.

Pivot Bio announced the creation of centers of excellence based in the Midwest that will serve as anchors for the company’s scientific and commercial future, and showcased record-breaking performance via its annual Impact Report, proving its tangible value to American farmers and strength­ening of U.S. supply chains.

Proprio received its second major 510(k) clearance from the FDA to include intra­op­er­a­tive measure­ments, advancing real-time surgical precision.

Q‑CTRL achieved a major milestone in quantum sensing, demon­strating GPS-free navigation with 50× the accuracy of traditional systems, marking one of the first real-world cases of quantum advantage — essential tech for when GPS is jammed at massive scale.

Radiant, in addition to its ANPI selection, was selected by the DOE to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel for the first test of its Kaleidos reactor — a major step toward compact, reliable, zero-emission power in remote and critical applications.

Rocket Lab launched multiple Electron missions and was selected to provide hypersonic test capability for the U.S. and U.K., advancing cutting-edge aerospace innovation and defense readiness.

TrustPoint was awarded a $1.2 million SBIR Phase II contract by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command to deliver and demonstrate C‑band GNSS receivers for secure Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) — a pivotal step forward in the development of resilient PNT solutions for military applications.

ZwitterCo released second-gen anti-fouling membranes for industrial water systems — boosting performance and lifespan.

Proprio and Samsara Eco were both named to Fast Company’s 2025 World Changing Ideas list.

DCVC Bio

Alchemab announced a landmark $415 million licensing agreement with Lilly for ATLX-1282 — its first-in-class, IND-ready program for ALS and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Creyon Bio (now led by DCVC Bio operating partner Serge Messerlian) signed a licensing and multi-target research deal with Eli Lilly worth up to $1 billion, which is focused on the discovery, development, and commer­cial­iza­tion of novel RNA-targeted oligonu­cleotide therapies for a broad range of diseases.

Latus Bio published two papers, one in Science and one in Nature, which demonstrate major improve­ments in performance toward advanced treatments of neurode­gen­er­a­tive diseases like Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.