DCVC 2024 Q3 update

Greetings, friends of DCVC!

We’ve hit the ground running after a productive summer.

We are delighted to announce over $700 million in fresh funding across DCVC Bio III and DCVC Climate, bringing our total raised over the last two-and-a-half years to $1.6 billion. We are immensely grateful to our LPs and excited to put the capital to work backing break­through deep tech solutions toward the world’s most pressing challenges and compelling opportunities.

To highlight our current thinking, we’ve released the second annual DCVC Deep Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties Report, which surveys the technology appli­ca­tions and trends we’re thinking about hardest. Deep-tech companies backed by experienced investors can build the new computing capa­bil­i­ties, energy systems, drugs and medical devices, and defense capa­bil­i­ties we’ll need to survive and thrive in this century. Read about the report here; get the report here. 

When we pinged you last Sunday, we had the sense that this was going to be a memorable New York Climate Week — and it was. On Monday at Nasdaq — where we co-hosted the opening bell ringing/NYCW kickoff event and day of programming — Zack and Twelve Co-Founder and CSO Dr. Etosha Cave told the amazing story of how Twelve has used the right kind of funding at the right times to establish a market-leading position in sustainable aviation fuel. At J.P. Morgan’s flagship NYCW event, which was put on in partnership with DCVC and TPG, Zack and Twelve Co-Founder and CEO Nicholas Flanders shared another version of that story, and Fervo Co-Founder and CEO Tim Latimer and Oklo CFO Craig Bealmear gave timely insight into how AI’s voracious appetite for energy can be met responsibly. At the DCVC Climate Dinner Salon, our LPs heard from-the-trenches reports from DCVC portfolio founders. And it was great simply to reconnect.

More Climate goodness: we were thrilled to welcome Milo Werner as a General Partner earlier this quarter. Her deep expertise and prowess have already been instru­mental in our Climate investing. And just a few days ago, we released our first DCVC Climate Impact report, which provides insight into the thinking behind our Climate fund and its first investments.

We were also glad to welcome to the DCVC Bio team Partner Dr. Justin Kern, whose background reflects DCVC Bio’s appetite for investing not only in bio-based companies developing medicines, but also in those working in agriculture, food, and industry generally. Earlier this year DCVC Bio also welcomed Principal Dr. Emily Park, MD, who brings deep experience in public markets, and Operating Partner Serge Messerlian, who has significant experience in the life sciences industry across a range of roles and therapeutic areas. The new team members are helping drive DCVC Bio’s go-forward thesis.

A few highlights from our flagship funds: as you can see from Twelve’s busy week in New York, the company has reached an inflection point: a couple of weeks ago it announced a massive $645 million in TPG-co-led funding (joined by DCVC), toward building out capacity for its E‑Jet fuel. Fervo got positive attention for the validation in its securing a $100 million loan for buildout of its major geothermal project in Utah; we joined ZwitterCo​’s $58 million Series B toward scaling up manu­fac­turing of its non-fouling filtration membranes (shout-out here to CEO Alex Rappaport for an excellent Boston Globe op-ed on the urgency of the water crisis); DCVC Climate led a big Series B for unspun in support of its 3D weaving technology designed to radically reduce waste in the fashion industry; and DCVC partic­i­pated in Noetik​’s $40 million Series A as it develops AI models to understand cancer biology and make better medicines. Lots of excitement, too, for our earliest-stage companies: this quarter saw de-stealth/Seed rounds for Tidal Metals (brine mining for magnesium and more), whose Seed was led by DCVC, and Odyssey (AI in service of creatives in Hollywood), whose Seed we joined. Also — see below for tremendous continued progress for both Rocket Lab and Capella, sometimes in stellar combination!

A few highlights from our DCVC Bio funds: Umoja got FDA approval to begin clinical trial for the world’s first in vivo gene therapy for cancer; Nilo Ther­a­peu­tics announced a big Series A, supported by DCVC Bio, to develop drugs against inflam­ma­tory diseases; and Empirico dosed its first cohort of nine patients in its Phase 1 trial for its novel twice-a-year COPD siRNA. MycoWorks further cemented its pipeline of part­ner­ships by working with Cadillac on its SOLLEI model, making its leather-like material the first mycelium product ever to make its way into a concept car.

Finally, ICYMI: three weeks ago, General Partner Alan Cohen delivered the keynote address at LSI Europe ​’24, the medtech community’s biggest gathering of the year. His message: the TechMed revolution is in full swing, to the benefit of health care systems and patients alike. More from Alan on that here.

FUNDING HIGHLIGHTS

DCVC Flagship

Fervo secured a $100 million construc­tion loan from X‑Caliber Rural Capital to accelerate the development of its commercial project in Utah.

Impulse Space closed a $150 million Series B in which DCVC was the largest outside investor to further grow its team and support the ongoing production of both its Helios and Mira vehicles.

Noetik announced a $40 million Series A financing, joined by DCVC, as it develops AI models to understand cancer biology and make better medicines.

Odyssey emerged from stealth with $9 million in Seed funding, joined by DCVC, to continue developing AI that transforms the cost and speed at which filmmakers and profes­sional artists can create Hollywood-grade visual effects.

Tidal Metals closed $8.5 million in DCVC-led Seed funding to commer­cialize its break­through brine mining technology for sustainable magnesium production. It also was announced a winner of the World Economic Forum’s highly competitive Sustainable Mining Challenge.

Twelve closed a massive $645 million TPG-co-led fundraise, joined by DCVC, to finish construc­tion of its first commercial-scale AirPlant in Washington State, which will produce E‑Jet®, Twelve’s sustainable aviation fuel made from waste CO2, water, and renewable energy.

unspun raised $32 million in Series B funding, led by DCVC, as it looks toward starting to incorporate its machines into the $1.7 trillion global fashion industry.

ZwitterCo announced its $58.4 million Series B round, joined by DCVC, to unlock uncon­ven­tional water resources and combat the global water crisis.

DCVC Bio

Nilo Ther­a­peu­tics announced $101 million in Series A funding, joined by DCVC Bio, as it works on new treatments for autoimmune diseases.

Syntax Bio launched with $15 million, joined by DCVC Bio, in funding to make cell therapy more accessible through streamlined manufacturing processes. 

OTHER NEWS

DCVC Flagship

Agility entered a first-of-its-kind partnership with Ricoh to expand Agility’s customer support capa­bil­i­ties throughout North America. See also goodcoverage of its progress in Fortune.

Capella Space launched two third-generation satellites (one aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron!) within five days — each rapidly deployed through Capella’s unique automated commis­sioning process. It also was awarded a $15 million contract by the U.S. Air Force to modernize its sensor and data collection capa­bil­i­ties for military appli­ca­tions. See also this in-depth piece in The Atlantic on how startups are redefining the great-power conflict.

CH4 Global signed an offtake agreement with protein producer CirPro to export reduced-methane beef produced in Australia, which signif­i­cantly slashes livestock methane emissions, following successful commercial imple­men­ta­tion in South Australian beef feedlots earlier this year.

Proprio celebrated the completion of its first 50 (very successful!) surgeries using its Paradigm platform.

Reality Defender partnered with ElevenLabs to boost safety on ElevenLabs’ platform, high­lighting the growing risk of video, audio, and image-based deepfakes.

Recursion announced its first Phase 2 clinical trial readout for cerebral cavernous malfor­ma­tion showing positive top-line results for REC-994, which met its primary endpoint of safety and tolerability.

Rocket Lab, in addition to success­fully delivering Capella’s satellite to orbit,delivered a pair of smallsats for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission to Mars to the launch site. It also fired its Archimedes engine for the first time, a key step in developing its Neutron reusable rocket. 

DCVC Bio

Avicenna entered into a strategic research collab­o­ra­tion with Molecure to identify novel drug candidates with superior pharmaceutical properties.

Creyon Bio was granted a second U.S. patent for its AI/machine learning-enabled platform that designs safer and more effective oligonucleotide-based medicines.

MycoWorks partnered with Cadillac on its newest EV concept — SOLLEI — which features MycoWorks’ automotive-grade leather alternative, making it the first concept vehicle to include cabin materials made from mycelium!

Umoja secured FDA approval of its IND application to study UB-VV111, a novel in vivo CAR‑T therapy to treat hematologic malig­nan­cies. It also enteredinto a multi-target antibody discovery collab­o­ra­tion with Nona Biosciences to produce novel in vivo generated CAR‑T cell therapy drug candidates.

Our portfolio had a great showing in Fast Company’s AI for Good list (AbCellera, Curative, Elo Life, Flutterwave, Pivot Bio, Proprio, and Tala) and in MIT Tech Review’s list of climate innovators under 35 (Brimstone and Fervo).