DCVC closes $700 million+ in new funds for a healthier planet and healthier lives; releases second-annual Deep Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties Report and first-annual DCVC Climate Impact Report

In 2010, we launched DCVC with a simple mission: to support deep tech founders pushing the limits of emerging technology to solve trillion-dollar problems that matter. We committed ourselves to achieving, for our investors, venture-scale returns from companies whose success would bring humanity greater resilience, abundance, and equitability.

At the time, this approach was novel in venture capital. While most of our peers focused on consumer Web and enterprise SaaS, we focused on companies using a compu­ta­tional advantage to positively transform vital industries that often hadn’t seen change in decades. And so DCVC investments often led to important physical outcomes: better production of energy, better medicines, better agriculture, better industrial efficiency, better national security. We are proud not only of the companies we’ve backed, but also of having been at the vanguard of what has become a recognized specialty in VC since one of our founders coined the term with a friend 25 years ago: deep tech.

Today, we are thrilled to announce that thanks to the support of the most forward-looking investors on the planet, we’ve raised over $700 million in funding across these two new funds (which brings our total funding closed over the last two-and-a-half years to over $1.6 billion). We are glad not only to have the backing of investors who have been with us from the very start, but also from many new investors. We are grateful that they agree that using capitalism’s incentives to radically improve the quality of life for people everywhere can drive both strong financial and societal outcomes.

Each of the new funds further builds out a core part of the DCVC franchise.

DCVC Climate

At DCVC, we’ve been success­fully investing in solutions to reduce climate-related risk and improve climate resilience for over a dozen years, but we jokingly say that it became socially acceptable to talk to LPs about it only two years ago. Amidst the massive expansion of the sector, we’ve established our first dedicated climate fund, which seeks to back entre­pre­neurs with break­through deep tech advances that are commer­cially and technically prepared to solve the world’s toughest climate challenges. The fund focuses on commer­cial­izing emerging climate tech solutions to catalyze meaningful improve­ments to established value chains, decarbonize high emitting industries, hasten the energy transition, and contribute to mitigation and adaptation efforts. 

The fund’s initial investments match great ambition with great early traction. For example, Fervo Energy, the global leader in advanced geothermal energy, announced in June its biggest contract to date (two PPAs totaling 320MW with one of the nation’s largest utilities), then in September reported record-breaking production results and a $100 million construc­tion loan toward its Cape Station project in Utah. And Twelve, a leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from waste CO2, recently inked a historic SAF offtake agreement with giant airline group IAG (British Airways, Aer Lingus, etc.) — and only a few days ago announced a massive TPG-co-led $645 million in fresh financing (in which DCVC partic­i­pated), comprising both equity and project finance. More on this fund and its impact can be found in the first DCVC Climate Impact Report.

DCVC Bio III

In 2018, we started DCVC Bio. Co-founded by DCVC founders Matt Ocko and Zachary Bogue, along with Dr. John Hamer and Dr. Kiersten Stead, it takes advantage of the fact that AI and large data models can now untangle networks of genes and proteins of staggering complexity — and allow biologists new ways to design medicines, materials, and farming methods. The team’s investments amount to nothing less than the rearrange­ment of the components of biology for better human health, better agriculture, and better production of valuable materials. 

Six years in, interest in the DCVC Bio team’s work has only grown, on the back of multiple clinical successes. We are proud to announce the close of an over­sub­scribed DCVC Bio III (see STAT coverage here and blog post here), our third main DCVC Bio fund, whose early investments include Radionetics Oncology, which recently received $140 million from Lilly to bring forward Radionetics’ novel small molecule G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) targeted radio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals — and which Lilly now has the exclusive right to acquire for $1 billion. DCVC Bio III has also invested in the recently de-stealthed Latus Bio, which is developing novel gene therapy candidates for central nervous system disorders. 

DCVC Deep Tech Oppor­tu­ni­ties Report 2024

For the second year, we’ve described the deep-tech investment oppor­tu­ni­ties we find most compelling right now. They range across computing, energy, medicine, drug discovery, agriculture, defense, aerospace, and more. Read more about the report here—or get right to the report itself here.

The world must not be kept waiting for sustainable abundance and healthier lives for all. In gratitude to our investors and in admiration of our founders, we are putting our new funding to the best uses we can find. DCVC is deep tech venture capital.