DCVC 2023 Q1 update

Dear Friends of DCVC,

Greetings!

The quarter ended this past Friday is one we’ll remember — both for the progress of our portfolio companies and for the Silicon Valley Bank crisis. The highlights:

DCVC Climate update

We hope you saw our announce­ment last month of the promotion of Rachel Slaybaugh to Partner. We are thrilled, as Rachel will be key to our work finding and supporting climate tech companies. We’ve been delighted by LP enthusiasm as we fundraise for DCVC Climate Select, a fund focused on deep tech climate companies poised for commer­cial­iza­tion and impact at scale.

SVB

From the moment the bank run began, DCVC took action to support our companies (which responded admirably under pressure) and the innovation ecosystem they rely on. Read our op-ed in USA Today (“A brake on innovation: SVB’s failure poses serious challenge for America’s tech economy”) and one from Jason Pontin in The Information (“SVB Is Dead. Long Live SVB”), along with additional firm commentary in The New York Times, CNBC, The Information, and Crunchbase News. Addi­tion­ally, we did what we could to help senior state and federal officials take informed, sure and swift action. We are glad to see the deposits of our companies protected and are monitoring events carefully.

Water

Zack coauthored a Boston Globe op-ed (“The world needs more water flowing where it’s needed most”) with Stanford economist (and Nobel Laureate) Paul Milgrom and Silvia Console Battilana, CEO of Auctio­nomics, which she founded with Paul. The nut: the world’s water crisis requires better market design + deep tech. DCVC’s anchor position in several trans­for­ma­tive water-related companies reflects this view.

Portfolio funding highlights

🛳️ Amogy secured $139 million for its Series B‑1 to continue scaling its break­through catalyst and ammonia ​“cracking” technology, unlocking the promise of hydrogen power to decarbonize the shipping and heavy transport industries. Later this year, Amogy’s ammonia-powered tugboat will take its maiden voyage.

💧 Aquafortus raised $17 million in Series A1 financing, co-led by DCVC, to support the construc­tion and deployment of a relocatable demon­stra­tion unit and commercial pilot across major US Oil and Gas basins and operators, working to purify high salinity brines and derive valuable metals and minerals from them in the process.

🛒 Fulfil Solutions emerged from stealth with $60 million in funding and unveiled a fully automated platform to revo­lu­tionize online grocery by making it profitable and socially responsible.

♻️ Recycleye raised $17 million in Series A funding, led by DCVC, to reinvent recycling with robotics, substan­tially decreasing the cost of sorting while increasing the valuable material recovered from municipal waste streams.

🔬 Shennon Biotech­nolo­gies emerged from stealth with $13 million in funding, led by DCVC, and a platform that can sort through and profile millions of immune cells in hours — a process that has histor­i­cally taken weeks or months.

💻 Q‑CTRL nabbed $27.4 million to continue developing quantum-control software that enables quantum sensors and helps reduce errors on quantum computers, tackling one of the most foun­da­tional challenges in quantum computing.

Portfolio exits

🩻 Caption Health, the first company ever to receive FDA approval for an AI-guided medical imaging acquisition system, democ­ra­tizing access to lifesaving preven­ta­tive care, was acquired by GE HealthCare. Congrats, Caption team! 🍾

Portfolio other news

🚀 Rocket Lab and Capella Space celebrated another successful launch together! Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket safely delivered Capella Space’s Acadia satellite into low-Earth orbit to expand its SAR imagery constel­la­tion and meet growing demand for high-quality earth observation data. See initial images here.

🤖 Agility Robotics revealed the long-awaited face of first-of-its-kind logistics robot, Digit, which was recognized as the best new innovation at this year’s ProMat. Looking good, Digit!

🌋 Fervo shared promising field results that suggest the plau­si­bility of creating flexible geothermal power plants! These plants would be capable of ramping electricity output up or down as needed and storing energy for hours to days, delivering it back over similar periods — effectively acting as a giant, long-lasting battery.

🇺🇦 Fortem Tech­nolo­gies and Capella Space each played a part in supporting the Ukraine war effort—fighting suicide drones and providing reliable SAR datacritical to under­standing Russia’s every move, respectively.

🥼 Unlearn AI added OpenAI CTO Mira Murati to its board as it continues to work on AI appli­ca­tions with incredible potential to revo­lu­tionize how clinical trials are run.

🏆 We were excited to see nine portfolio companies recognized on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list. Congrat­u­la­tions to Aclima, Airtable, Brimstone, Capella Space, Epirus, Gro Intel­li­gence, Pano AI, Recursion, and Unlearn AI.

We are proud of our companies’ progress — and we wish you all a fantastic start to Q2!

Very best regards,

Matt and Zack