When we started DCVC almost a decade ago, one of the pressing Deep Tech problems of the day was scale-out compute. Our firm played a role in creating some of the most important computing resources taken for granted today. Many of our team’s early investments became the building blocks of today’s computing giants including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Illumina, and VMware. They also, in a very material way, enabled the large-scale machine-learning and AI capa­bil­i­ties upon which people are building the future.

Our early role has consis­tently given us unique access to scientists and engineers using these computing ​“superpowers” to attack previously insur­mount­able problems far beyond IT. We saw that their solutions could upend — and were in fact already disrupting — global industries. Conse­quently, we believe the current Deep Tech opportunity is both immense and impactful, even relative to prior incarnations.

DCVC V — $725 million focused on a $20+ Trillion GDP Opportunity[1]

We are grateful that our success to date enabled us to close DCVC V, a new $725 million Deep Tech fund, our eighth overall. DCVC V will continue to back early-stage Deep Tech teams as well as doubling down on key later stage oppor­tu­ni­ties as they emerge from within our portfolio. This fund, roughly twice the size of our prior vintage of funds, is one of the largest raises to date for Deep Tech.

We recognize that solving tough global challenges requires a deep bench of talented individuals. To support our new efforts, we continue to strengthen our team. First, we promoted Kelly Chen, a principal at DCVC with a strong track record and deep under­standing of our investment thesis, to partner. Alan Cohen, formerly of Cisco, Nicira and Illumio, and Matt Michelsen, formerly an advisor to 8VC, have joined as partners, bringing with each of them multiple decades of hard-won experience. And Kate Reed joins us as VP of marketing and commu­ni­ca­tions to help our companies tell their important stories.

Increas­ingly over the last decade, the companies we fund have addressed a broader spectrum of global GDP with each successive year. With DCVC V, we are largely focused on disruption in the $20+ trillion of GDP of the global economy, not incremental change in the $3 trillion IT sector. DCVC V exemplifies the shared belief of our LPs, our team, and our co-investors – that venture capital is an essential catalyst to validate, prove, and deliver new tech­nolo­gies that civi­liza­tion now demands.

Business as usual is broken. We believe venture capital can actively help correct some of the excesses of capitalism while delivering strong returns. Venture capital can address many urgent global problems and turn them into profitable oppor­tu­ni­ties – while empowering more people, more equitably, than ​“stay the course.” Our experience shows that success­fully tackling the hard, even terrifying, problems of the world, often in innovation-resistant industries, has potentially greater impact and returns than many would believe.

Backing the Next Great Industrial Giants

We back teams taking on the global economy’s hardest challenges with novel compu­ta­tional and engineering approaches. These innovative scientists, engineers and company builders are applying Deep Tech to create the next great industrial giants. And we’ve seen them do it – from rockets to robots, from molecular manu­fac­turing™ to microbes, and from applied AI to autonomous systems.

Below are key sectors DCVC V is investing in: