Last Week in Deeptech - 11/07/2023
Welcome to the Deepsight weekly newsletter, where we run through last week's notable events in deeptech.
Last Week in News:
The 117th and final Ariane 5 launch successfully delivered two satellites into orbit (Arianespace)
HSBC has become the first bank to join BT and Toshiba’s quantum secure metro network in the UK (The Quantum Insider)
Samsung forecasts a 96% quarterly profit fall to a 14-year low due to their recent chip glut (Financial Times)
TL;DR - Venture Markets:
59 deeptech ventures collectively raised $1,808mn from investors.
1 VC fund announced closure, raising a total of $100mn from LPs.
2 companies achieved exits, creating $934mn in value for shareholders.
Featured Insights:
Launching CERN Venture Connect (Ash Ravikumar of CERN on LinkedIn)
Unearthing new innovations: 7 mining spinouts to watch (Global University Venturing)
This is how AI will transform the way science gets done (MIT Technology Review)
Tech Breakthroughs & Partnerships:
Toyota claims battery breakthrough in potential boost for electric cars (The Guardian)
Pioneer Group has announced a new partnership with King’s College London to launch new dedicated start-up incubators in biotech and medtech (Pioneer Group)
Xcel Energy has received approval to build a 10MW/1,000MWh Form Energy iron-air battery system at their Sherco Solar site which will come online by 2025 (Xcel Energy)
New AI systems developed by Huawei could speed up our ability to create weather forecasts - and could help to make them more accurate (MIT Technology Review)
Our Top 10 Funding Picks:
Nomad Atomics, a quantum sensor technology developed by atomic physicists from the Australian National University, announced it has secured $8mn in fresh funding.
Cambridge-based Camena Bioscience secured $10mn for its DNA synthesis platform.
Leading supplier of nanoparticle printing tools, VSPARTICLE, has closed its €14.5mn ($15.8mn) funding round led by Taavet Hinrikus' Plural Platform and BlueYard Capital.
Frankfurt-based Quantagonia secured $4.7mn to make Europe “quantum ready”.
Neko Health, founded by Hjalmar Nilsonne (Watty Founder) and Daniel Ek (Spotify Co-Founder) in 2018, has raised a €60mn ($66mn) Series A led by Lakestar.
Opensource chip design platform ChipFlow has closed a $1.5mn pre-seed round.
Rotterdam-based Hardt Hyperloop, a hyperloop network technology platform, has secured $13mn to support the construction of the European Hyperloop Centre.
Go Eve, An electric vehicle charging startup spun out from Imperial College London has secured $3.8mn in Series A funding to roll out its technology across hundreds of sites.
Clinical research platform uMed has raised $12.8mn to tackle the slump in UK trials.
Japanese laser fusion company, EX-Fusion, has raised $12.7mn in a Seed Round with plans to advance their laser fusion research and commercial development.
See the full list here.
Announced VC Fund Closes:
Public Ventures has launched a $100mn impact fund dedicated to supporting research spin-offs in the fields of life science and clean technologies. (TechCrunch Coverage)
Champagne-Worthy Exits (M&A & IPOs):
Diagnostics company Novacyt has agreed to purchase UK-based genomic medicine company Yourgene Health in a £16.7mn ($21.3mn) all-cash deal.
Audax Private Equity announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell CorEvitas - a leading provider of real-world evidence for regulatory-approved medical treatments and therapies - to Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Key Hires and People Movements:
ATLAS Space Operations, a leading Ground Software as a Service™ provider, announced the appointment of Air Force Veteran John Williams as its new CEO.
Small Modular Reactor company NuScale Power has appointed Carl Fisher as COO.
Lyell Immunopharma, a clinical‑stage T-cell reprogramming company, announced that Matthew Lang has joined the executive team in the new Chief Business Officer role.
Photonics leader Infinera has appointed industry veteran Scotty Benda as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Systems Engineering.
Policy & Government Initiatives:
Another fairly quiet week across deeptech policy and government initiatives, with the only major announcement being that NATO has officially appointed their investment team to manage the newly created €1bn defence tech fund. (Sifted published the breakdown of who’s who)
That’s all for this week!
As always, if you aren’t subscribed already, feel free to sign up below to get notifications straight into your inbox, and to join the growing Deepsight community.
If you have any feedback - or want to see more of something covered in the newsletter - please do contact me via email: dan@deepsight.news.
Thanks for reading!
Dan