News

A 3D Google Maps for Surgeons: Proprio Secures FDA Clearance for Spinal Surgical Navigation

As surgery’s supply shrinks and demand grows, the FDA’s approval of Proprio’s amazing surgical navigation system marks a vital step toward bridging the gap.

MosaicML announces right advance at right time—high-performance, affordable, secure, explainable AI

The company’s two new sets of products will allow developers to deploy generative AI models quickly, easily, and at one-fifteenth the price of other comparable services—in their own secure environments.

Congratulations to Amogy in its big Series B-1 to scale up its 10X better ammonia “cracker” key to zero-carbon power for trucks and cargo ships

The shipping and heavy transport industries are two of the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions. With a highly efficient catalyst, Amogy’s ammonia “cracking” technology unlocks the promise of hydrogen power to decarbonize commercial transportation.

DCVC leads $13 million seed funding for ShennonBio—revolutionizing immunotherapy through immune cell profiling at unprecedented accuracy, speed

For years, immunotherapy has been hindered by the time and effort required to accurately isolate immune cells to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. ShennonBio can isolate these cells in hours, not weeks or months—to the prospective benefit of patients everywhere.

Fulfil emerges from stealth with $60 million of fresh capital

Fulfil has partnered with both The Save Mart Companies and one of the largest food delivery companies in the U.S. to show that modern online grocery delivery can be done—accurately, economically, and with features that delight customers.

From the toughest wastewater, clean water and precious resources: DCVC co-leads $17 million Aquafortus Series A1

Today, the world generates enough hypersaline wastewater to fill three Lake Meads every year. Aquafortus, whose technology purifies high-salinity brines while extracting valuable minerals and metals in the process, shows the tremendous power of Deep Tech to make sustainability a vital economic imperative.

Rachel Slaybaugh promoted to Partner

From the time of her arrival in early 2022, Rachel has been integral to our work in finding, funding, and growing companies using Deep Tech to address climate change as aggressively and successfully as possible.

GE HealthCare acquires Caption Health, energizing DCVC’s thesis around AI in medicine

Caption Health was the first company ever to receive FDA approval for an AI-guided medical imaging acquisition system—and is now the first company acquired by recently independent GE HealthCare. Caption is an exemplary DCVC company, democratizing the early detection of heart disease or failure by lowering the cost and complexity of delivering preventative care.

One person’s trash is everyone’s treasure: DCVC leads $17 million Recycleye Series A

London-based Recycleye's system can pick over 33,000 items per 10-hour shift, halving sorting costs and increasing end purity to upwards of 99 percent, allowing materials value increases of up to 5X. These shifts will transform the waste landscape.

Q>1 Is a Rallying Cry for Fusion Energy—and for All of Deep Tech

The historic achievement announced last week by the U.S. Department of Energy was a milestone: proof that human ingenuity can tame the power of the stars. It was also a reminder that innovation still holds the capacity to astonish us.

Reach’s Wireless Power Is Electric

After leading Reach’s Series A in 2019, we are excited to lead the company’s $30 million Series B. Reach is doing for power what WiFi did for access to the Internet: untethering it.

Welcoming Nate Nickerson to DCVC

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Nate Nickerson, who will become DCVC’s Communications and Public Affairs Partner, starting September 26th. Nate comes to us from Yale University, where he was Vice President for Communications.

ZwitterCo: Helping an Increasingly Dry World Reuse Water

Cleaning up wastewater streams whose waste is currently hauled away or dumped into rivers could make industrial water supplies more predictable, reduce competition for public waters, and help companies sidestep rising municipal water and sewer rates. Tomorrow’s winning climate technologies must reduce costs even as they spare the planet, and DCVC is proud to partner with ZwitterCo on its innovation that will accomplish both.

Welcoming Chief Legal Officer Ryan Ward to DCVC

In Ryan, DCVC is gaining a leader in the venture-capital legal community, whose background will help us approach our most compelling opportunities and significant challenges with the clarity derived from having seen our industry from many important angles.

Why We Invested in Fervo Energy

Geothermal energy is clean and can be dispatched where and when it’s needed – it’s a “firm” resource in the jargon of energy wonks. So, why don’t we use more of it? Historically, geothermal reservoirs have been expensive to develop and operate. Thanks to Fervo Energy, the most recent addition to DCVC Climate’s portfolio of companies, that’s changing.

Twelve Creates the World’s First Industrial-Scale Carbon Transformation Platform

Humanity is on track to achieve a future with carbon-free electricity generation, but we will still need carbon to make essential products, from the cushion in your couch to the insulation in your walls.

Why We Invested in Zap Energy

Zap Energy is advancing the Z-pinch plasma confinement mechanism, which uses electrical current to create the conditions for fusion. Because this approach avoids the expensive and complex magnets required for magnetic confinement fusion, it promises to scale more quickly and economically.

Human-scale Robots for Global-scale Abundance, Resilience, and Dignity

In fiction, robots are often portrayed as displacing humans; some wait on customers at diners, replicants work as police detectives, and droids pilot starships. The real story of robotic automation is different.

Lumafield is Lighting Up the Future of Product Design

Lumafield is delivering the world’s first low-cost industrial CT scanner, and product analysis system.

Welcoming Climate Investors Matt Trevithick and Rachel Slaybaugh to DCVC

Matt and Rachel are rockstars in their respective fields: each has helped commercialize emerging technologies in energy for many years.

Investing in Human Enablement

For the first half of my childhood, my father drove a delivery truck every day, starting at dawn. He found better prospects over time, but if you know anything about trucking, you know it’s a difficult, sometimes dangerous, and frequently lonely, lonely job, a profession begging for automation and autonomous operations. The difficulty of the job and the shortage of drivers are why we are now seeing new companies like Embark Trucks entering service, addressing the driver gap in long-haul trucking.

DCVC Welcomes 2022

We begin 2022 thankful for the previous year and cautiously optimistic about the next, even as we closely monitor the Covid 19 Omicron surge. We send our best wishes for health and happiness to you and your families at the start of this new year.

Reinventing Cement for a Zero-Carbon Future

When the Pantheon’s concrete was mixed, engineers had no inkling that the process released vast amounts of CO2, nor, that one day CO2 would warm our whole planet and destabilize our climate. To avoid a climate catastrophe, cement will need to be reinvented - DCVC is proud to help Brimstone pioneer a radically simple solution.

Eliminating Cow Burps to Save Civilization

“I can help solve climate change if I grow this seaweed at a massive scale and feed all the ruminants on the planet,” Steve Meller, CEO CH4 Global

On Going to Space

“One day, quite soon, entire generations will look down on the Earth, and as the first astronauts did, fall in love again with our great blue planet, one by one.”

Make No Small Plans: Kairos Aerospace and Pulling Today's Biggest Levers

Since its founding, Kairos has prevented 14.4 billion cubic feet of methane emissions from being released into the atmosphere, equivalent to removing 1.59 million vehicles from the road or reducing 7.3 million tons of CO2 emissions. Investment in technology and companies that help us hit that 45% reduction will buy our planet and society years to work on scaling long-term climate solutions. That is why DCVC led Kairos’s $26M Series C-1 funding round.

Caption Health’s New Breakthroughs in Transforming Cardiac Care

Caption Health has the potential to improve the care of millions of people who otherwise would not have access to vital diagnostic ultrasound and this week the company announce two significant milestones - a strategic partnership with Butterfly Networks and approval of new technology add-on payments for Medicare patients.

Safety in Motion: Evolv Technology’s Public Listing

Today, Evolv becomes a public company. Under the leadership of CEO Peter George, the company has seen explosive growth and a rapidly expanding market over the past 18 months, including a quickly growing customer base, a deeper product line, and the best management team in the physical security industry.

The Path to Sustainable Agriculture: Pivot Bio Raises $430M Series D

Today, Pivot Bio announced a $430 million Series D, led by DCVC and Temasek, to fuel the continued and accelerating release of the company’s synthetic nitrogen fertilizer replacement, which has replaced synthetic nitrogen on more than 1 million crop acres in 2021 alone.

The Future is CO2Made: Twelve Raises $57M Series A

Twelve announced it has raised a $57M Series A from DCVC and other investors this morning. Pioneering carbon transformation, Twelve helps companies like Mercedes-Benz and Proctor & Gamble make products like laundry detergent or foam car dashboards carbon-negative while maintaining the same quality or better of petroleum-based alternatives.

Protecting the Digital World Around Us: SentinelOne IPO

Today, we celebrate yet another DCVC company making its public market debut. The smiles behind the Nasdaq podium are indicative of the hard work and dedication that built SentinelOne into an autonomous security pioneer. Today is also a celebration of our belief in a company that has the power to change the world. We’re also looking forward to what’s to come, both for SentinelOne as a public company and the other DCVC Deep Tech companies helping “cancel the apocalypse.”

Confluent IPO: Data In (Upward) Motion

Confluent is the 6th DCVC portfolio company to make its exit to the public market since December, joining AbCellera (Nasdaq: ABCL), Recursion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RXRX), Zymergen (Nasdaq: ZY), Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) and Lucira Health (Nasdaq: LHDX). Four others are poised to join them through announced SPAC transactions or highly-anticipated IPOs currently on the calendar (Rocket Lab, Evolv Technology, Embark Trucks and SentinelOne).

Embark-ing On the Public Markets

DCVC portfolio company Embark Trucks announced its intent to go public through a SPAC transaction. The company's autonomous trucks have driven more than a half million autonomous miles while maintaining a perfect CSA safety score. It now counts Anheuser-Busch Inbev S.A., HP and Werner Enterprises among its partners.

From Seed to IPO: Zymergen Brings Biofacturing Public

Imagine that innovators and manufacturers across the globe weren’t constrained by that limited molecular palette – or by its environmental degradation. That you could design, develop and commercialize new products economically, at industrial scale and without negatively impacting the environment. That’s the opportunity ahead of Zymergen (Nasdaq: ZY) and why discerning investors supported its public market debut.

Hermés + MycoWorks: A Match Made in Sustainable Luxury Heaven

In Mycoworks we saw a perfectly balanced team using biology to develop materials better than their progenitors, and we are delighted that Following three years of collaborative effort, Hermés will release this fall a reimagined, sustainable version of its Victoria travel bag, which will be made of canvas, calfskin and Sylvania materials. Sylvania is made from MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium, a patented cultivation process that engineers the naturally interwoven threads of mycelium to produce proprietary, interlocking structures which provides the same performance, quality and aesthetics as leather without the use of animals or plastic.

Evolv Technology, the Leader in AI Touchless Security Screening, to Become Publicly Traded Company

Think about sending your child on a school field trip to an Aquarium (the Georgia Aquarium if you live in Atlanta!) without passing through intimidating metal detectors, confident they will be safe, knowing that no one around them had a weapon. That is part of an estimated $20 billion market opportunity ahead of Evolv Technology and why we’re thrilled about its announcement today that it plans to go public on NASDAQ through a business combination with NewHold Investment Corp. at an implied pro forma enterprise value of approximately $1.25 billion. The combined company is expected to have approximately $470 million in gross proceeds, assuming no redemptions, at close and current stockholders, of which DCVC is one, will own over 70 percent of the pro forma equity of the combined company.

Rocket Lab to Become Publicly Traded Commercial Orbital Launch Company

When we first invested in Rocket Lab, we were excited by the idea that Earth’s orbital space – and beyond – could be routinely, reliably, and cost-effectively accessible to businesses of every size and entrepreneurs of every origin. Today’s announcement that Rocket Lab plans to go public on Nasdaq through a business combination with Vector Acquisition Corporation is yet another important milestone as the company continues to democratize access to space. The deal will provide for approximately $750 million in proceeds at a pro forma enterprise value of $4.1 billion

MindMed Acquires DCVC Company HealthMode

We’re excited that DCVC-backed HealthMode has been acquired by MindMed, a leading psychedelic medicine biotech company that is working on novel approaches to the treatment of mental illness and addiction.

2021 and Deep Tech: Reasons for Optimism

From the early days of DCVC a decade ago, we’ve believed that Deep Tech is the most cost effective and economically viable solution to tackling the fundamental challenges that matter to humanity.

Introducing Capella Spotlight - Better Imaging for Better Insight

Capella Space is a pioneer in the Earth imaging, providing real-time synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data for customers. Spot is the result of a four year technical journey which started from the day Capella Space was founded as the only American commercial SAR company.

Deep Tech Innovations from the Ground Up

Pivot is the leader of the in-field biological nitrogen fixation space. It comes as no surprises to those of us who have been on this journey with Pivot Bio that it was awarded a prime spot on the TIME 2020 Best Inventions list. Pivot Bio’s PROVEN® is one of the few innovations that can move the climate clock backwards and improve farmer economics at the same time.

The Future of Repetitive, Physically Demanding and Dangerous Work: DCVC Co-leads Investment in Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics combines two decades of research and development with one of the most impressive robotics teams globally. DCVC is thrilled to join the weighty mission at Agility, co-leading a $20m round alongside previous investor Playground Global.

Using Biology-as-a-Platform to Move from Treatment to Cure

Recursion is an exemplar of what we mean when we talk about biology-as-a-platform -- using automation and machine intelligence to speed up our understanding of biology, and then applying that knowledge to a seemingly unending number of fields that span from drug discovery to material science to agriculture.

Biology-as-a-Platform in the Fight Against Cancer: Freenome Raises $270m Series C

Five years ago, we participated in the seed round for a young company determined to change the way we detect, treat and, ultimately, beat cancer. Today, we’re equally if not more excited to participate in the $270 million Series C financing because it’s clearer than ever that while Freenome set out to create a new way to test for cancer, its innovation goes well beyond diagnosing a single type of cancer with a simple blood test.

Life sciences and Deep Tech: The next set of solutions to the next set of problems

Today we’re excited to announce the close of DCVC Bio II, a $350 million early stage fund raised entirely during the global pandemic and focused on Deep Tech-enabled life sciences companies in human therapeutics, agriculture and industrial biotech.

DCVC Leads Series B Financing in Caption Health

Today, Caption Health announced a $53m Series B round of financing led by DCVC. We’re proud to double down on our existing commitment to this company, which is emblematic of our Deep Tech thesis: by combining the latest advances in science and technology with unique compute and algorithmic advantage, Deep Tech entrepreneurs can pragmatically and cost-effectively tackle previously unsolvable problems in nearly every industry, especially those that haven’t seen major progress in decades. For Caption Health, that means transforming a complex medical procedure into something straightforward and accessible to a wide range of caregivers, enhancing the quality of care at the point it's needed.

An Update on How Deep Tech is Arming the Fight Against COVID-19

About a month ago, we highlighted the DCVC companies working to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As those efforts mature, we wanted to share an update on the progress made by some of our portfolio companies.

Alpha Marketing: Be Like Mike

Basketball is a great analog for a lot of marketing battles, particularly in B2B tech with tightly-knit teams. Today’s NBA is extremely competitive, but players are traded frequently. There's general collegiality around the league: everyone is always texting each other and commenting on social media. Similarly, the half-life of so many startups — or career tenures in larger companies — are measured in years, not decades. People expect to be working with a lot of potential competitors sooner than they used to, or even get acquired by one.

Investing in Proprio: New Needs Need New Techniques

When we first met Gabriel Jones, Jim Youngquist, Dr. Sam Browd, and Josh Smith, we saw a perfect fusion of clinical, technical, and entrepreneurial leadership skills at work. We saw how Proprio, with its advanced surgical navigation system is combining surgical expertise with computational advances to change surgical efficiency. Then we met the rest of the extended team in their offices in Seattle, we came away with one distinct impression: this was one of the best Series A teams we had ever seen.

Pivot Bio Raises $100m Series C: Bringing Microbes to Millions...of Acres

Pivot Bio not only gives farmers peace of mind with more resilient crops and more predictable yields, it benefits our planet, too. That’s a massive challenge to tackle, and one the company was able to achieve by mixing biology, machine learning and computational modeling to produce a novel solution. This way of thinking and this fearlessness in tackling a massive challenge in our global agricultural system is exactly why DCVC was such an early and enthusiastic supporter of the company, from leading the Series Seed to doubling down in this successful Series C.

Atoms, After Bits

As we do our part to social distance to flatten the curve in this pandemic, staying connected to our team is more important than ever. This winter, DCVC Partner Alan Cohen wrote two heartfelt posts explaining his personal connection to our mission, and we wanted to share them with you.

Highlights from the DCVC Team

Powering a Comprehensive Response to the COVID-19 Crisis Through Deep Tech

Our world has been turned upside down by COVID-19 in just a few short months, and we now face the simultaneous challenges of developing treatments and vaccines, creating and distributing fast testing capability, and delivering diagnoses and healthcare outside of increasingly over-burdened hospitals. The DCVC Deep Tech portfolio has sprung into action across all of these fronts, delivering concrete help that can bend the curve on these difficult challenges. We invested in these brilliant teams because of their dedication to solving society-scale problems with a unique combination of speed, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. They are by definition well-equipped and deeply committed to respond to and help mitigate a crisis like the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus pandemic.

Former Command Senior Enlisted Leader of USSOCOM Patrick McCauley Joins DCVC as Operating Partner

At the start of this year and just a few months after retiring from his post as the 9th Command Senior Enlisted Leader of the United States Special Operations Command, Patrick McCauley joined our team to mentor our portfolio entrepreneurs on leadership and bring his operational expertise to these companies as they scale for the long term.

Solving the world’s hardest problems with Deep Tech: Request for Startups

Tackling the world’s largest problems takes more than just a handful of ambitious upstarts, and huge new challenges means new startups are needed. There are some areas my partners and I are particularly interested in seeing new or currently un-funded startups address with disruptive solutions. The best way to commence solving these challenges is to make them public, so here’s our Deep Tech request for startups.

Caption Health Secures FDA Authorization for First-in-Class AI-Guided Medical Ultrasound

Today, the FDA granted De Novo FDA authorization for a new device under its Breakthrough Device program. That device, DCVC portfolio company Caption Health’s lead product, Caption Guidance, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to put the power of ultrasound in the hands of a wide range of healthcare professionals – even those without any prior ultrasound experience.

Powering the Next Battery Revolution, Advano Decloaks From Stealth With $18.5m Series A

DCVC portfolio company Advano launched out of stealth with $18.5m in Series A funding for its upcycled silicon solution for the battery industry

DCVC x Women in Robotics Event

DCVC recently hosted a Women in Robotics Event at our new office ...

Element AI raises $151M Series B to enable artificial intelligence at the heart of every company

DCVC has backed Element AI’s $151 million Series B up round as they inject artificial intelligence into corporate operations around the world.

DCVC V

Strengthening our commitment to Deep Tech with a new $725m fund

From endpoint to infrastructure, SentinelOne advances autonomous, AI-driven cybersecurity with $120M Series D

DCVC is backing SentinelOne’s $120M Series D as they build AI-powered, uniquely resource-efficient, flexible, threat-neutralizing software for all digital devices.

Medical Informatics: Bringing deep compute and empathy to the ICU

DCVC leads MIC's $11.9M Series A

Reimagining biologics: AbCellera and Novartis partner to find new disease treatments

The companies are joining forces to find therapeutic antibodies for up to 10 target diseases

Joining DCVC

After years of incredible work at our portfolio companies, Alan Cohen has joined Data Collective as a partner.

Computationally-bred microbe fertilizer for corn decreases pollution, saves farmers money and time, and increases crop yields 4.4%+ in world of <1% recent yield gains

Pivot Bio’s field trial results “could potentially revolutionize how we farm”

AbCellera Raises $10M Series A: Deep Search for the Immune System

DCVC Bio has led a $10 million Series A in AbCellera, the company using the immune system as a search space for therapeutic antibody discovery.

DCVC Bio leads GenEdit’s $8.5 Million Seed Round: Safe, efficient CRISPR and gene therapy delivery platform proven across multiple diseases and cell types

Dr. Kunwoo Lee and Dr. Hyo Min Park, GenEdit’s CEO and CTO, go to work each morning to help the millions of people who struggle with genetic disorders.

Rocket Lab raises $140M Series E, demonstrates back-to-back smallsat launches for revenue

DCVC backed Rocket Lab in their $140M Series E in Fall of 2018 as they scaled up their rocket manufacturing and prepared for back-to-back launches in November and early December.

Primer AI, Series A led by DCVC, raises $40M+ Series B to scale commercialization of AI that reads and writes like a human

Zymergen, Series Seed and Series A led by DCVC, Raises $400M+ Series C: Revolutionizing global industry through molecular manufacturing

DCVC has doubled down on our investment in Zymergen, the world’s first molecular manufacturing company, able to understand and reliably program biological systems to produce existing and new materials at molecular precision, for up to million metric ton scale and beyond.

DCVC leads Reach Labs' $9M Series A to make scalable, far-field wireless power a reality

Safe, efficient, reliable wireless power that scales – from critical health devices to distributed sensors and compute infrastructure, from power tools to robotic fleets – via a single semiconductor transceiver architecture

StarkWare Raises $30M Series A to Build Post-Quantum Secure Blockchain

DCVC has made a strong commitment to StarkWare’s $30M Series A to support their zero knowledge proofs platform for dramatically improved blockchain scalability and security. We invested in StarkWare because of their expert team, the speed and scale improvements they’ve achieved, and the post-quantum security they bring to blockchain identity and transactions - a necessary step for this technology.

More Productive Farmers, a Cleaner World, $212 Billion a Year of Revenue on the Table

We’re excited to announce Pivot Bio’s $70 million Series B, the result of the company’s outstanding success since DCVC led its Seed and co-led its Series A.

DCVC Portfolio IPO: Elastic goes public, opening at a $4.4 billion valuation

We’re excited to announce that Elastic went public today at a $4.4 billion valuation. DCVC’s early investment in Elastic in its 2012 Series A financing built on our pioneering thesis at the intersection of open-source, big data infrastructure, and scale-out compute

Deep Learning for Image Analysis: DCVC Backs Bay Labs’ AI-Powered Ultrasound

Current advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are poised to redesign healthcare for the better — for patients, physicians, and even the medical device industry.

DCVC leads $60 million Series B investment in Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Machine Vision & Robotics to Accelerate Drug Discovery

While common diseases like diabetes and heart disease draw widespread attention and treatment, rare diseases that most...

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