Last Week in Deeptech - 11/04/2023
Welcome to the first Deepsight weekly newsletter, where we will run through last week's notable events in the world of deeptech.
Last Week in News:
Samsung to cut memory chip output to tackle global glut as profits tumble (Financial Times)
YC’s latest batch sure was a lot of ‘maybe AI can do… this?’ (Techcrunch)
UK goes light-touch on AI as Elon Musk sounds the alarm (Politico)
TL;DR - Venture Markets:
Pretty slow week in deeptech venture markets, with no major VC Fund closes or M&A deals, maybe due to the long Easter weekend.
Despite the shorter working week, total funding for deeptech ventures reversed the negative trend of the last few weeks, with 59 ventures raising $1.68bn from investors collectively.
Last week also saw 4 major Chinese IPOs - with Everbright Tongchuang, Gova Group, North Long Dragon New Materials Technology and Qizhong Technology all going public.
Featured Insights:
ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it (MIT Technology Review)
Chip hunting: The semiconductor procurement solution when other options fail (McKinsey)
Five reasons the alternative meat dream is not dead (Sifted)
Tech Breakthroughs:
Synthetic embryos have been implanted into monkey wombs (MIT Technology Review)
Aalto University creates photonic ‘time crystals’ that amplify light (Optics.org)
Fraunhofer IWS develops laser-joining of low mass structures for manufacturing (Optics.org)
Image: Aalto University | Aalto University’s Low Temperature Laboratory
Our Top 10 Funding Picks:
The London-based decision intelligence platform, Quantexa, closes $129m in series E funding to become the first newly-minted British unicorn of 2023.
True Anomaly raises $17m to bring tactical capabilities to US satellites.
Sensible Biotechnologies raises $4.2m in pre-seed financing to unlock the full potential of mRNA technology for the next generation of therapeutics and vaccines.
Sanyi Hi-Tech receives over CN¥100m ($14.5m) in equity financing, to accelerate their production expansion for lithium battery upstream graphite sagger crucible.
Covariant brings in an additional $75m in Series C funding, co-led by Index Ventures and Radical Ventures, to meet customer demand for scaled AI robotics deployments.
China-based generative AI startup, DeepMusic, closes almost $10m in a series A bridge round to create an "era of music creation for all" using the AIGC music engine.
AquaCultured Foods picks $5.5m in seed funding to develop their novel new technology that creates an alternative seafood option through the use of microbial fermentation.
Helical Fusion of Tokyo, Japan becomes the latest venture that aims to commercialize fusion energy using magnetic confinement, raising $6m from SBI Investment.
Li Krypton Technology raises a fresh CN¥400m ($58m) Series B from BAIC Capital and 14 other investors to continue providing R&D capabilities in the areas of electric vehicles and autonomous driving.
Northern Gritstone funds the development of new ‘wonder materials’, taking a stake in the University of Leeds spinout LC AuxeTec as part of their £2m seed round.
See the full list here.
Key Hires and People Movements:
Bright Machines names Gayle Sheppard as sole CEO.
Deep 6 AI appoints Jason Colbert as their new Chief Technology Officer.
Former Virgin Senior Partner, Patrick McCall, joins Altitude Angel’s board as Non-Executive Director.
Bhaskar Sambasivan steps down as CitiusTech CEO; successor named as Rajan Kohli
That’s all for now!
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As an FYI, I’ll normally aim to publish this newsletter every Monday - late morning/early afternoon for UK and European Times. However, I thought I’d publish a day later this week due to the long easter weekend, and being stuck up a volcano.
Lastly, if you do have any initial feedback, or want to see something in particular covered in the newsletter, please do reach out to me via email: dan@deepsight.news.
Thanks for reading!
Dan