Last Week in Deeptech - 20/06/2023
Welcome to the Deepsight weekly newsletter, where we run through last week's notable events in the world of deeptech.
Last Week in News:
MoD signs deal to use Google’s AI (UKTN)
World’s largest fusion project is in big trouble (Scientific American)
French gigafactory developer Verkor set to announce a €2bn fundraise (Sifted)
OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic to give the UK early access to foundational models for AI safety research (Techcrunch)
Ex-Samsung executive alleged to have stolen tech to recreate chip plant in China (Financial Times)
TL;DR - Venture Markets:
71 deeptech ventures collectively raised $1,305mn from investors.
2 VC funds announced closure, raising a total of $298mn from LPs.
3 companies achieved exits, creating $3,625mn in value for shareholders.
Featured Insights:
How to make Britain’s AI dreams reality (The Economist)
China's quantum leap - Made in Germany (DW / Corrective)
Our fusion moment has arrived. We can’t afford to let it pass (The Hill)
Big Pharma dealmaking recovers with $85bn M&A splurge (Financial Times)
xTech Futures: SpaceTech - Launching the ultimate emerging market (Deloitte)
A New Era of Deep Learning: From CNNs to QCNNs and Beyond (Quantum Insider)
Tech Breakthroughs & Partnerships:
German fusion startups Proxima Fusion, Gauss Fusion and Focused Energy have announced they are bundling their research activities together (Joint Press Release)
Anduril and Hadrian announced a strategic partnership in which Hadrian will supply and manufacture precision parts for Anduril’s suite of autonomous systems (Andruil)
Terra Quantum broke the record in quantum key distribution, paving the way to offering unprecedented security over existing fibre-optic networks globally (Terra Quantum)
Greenjets and Firestorm Labs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop the next-generation attritable drone swarming solutions (Greenjets)
The ‘World’s Thermometer’ reaches orbit - SatVu's "HOTSAT-1" successfully launched with SpaceX from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California (SatVu)
Meta AI has openly released their new I-JEPA model - a self-supervised computer vision that learns to understand the world by predicting it (Meta AI)
Our Top 10 Funding Picks:
Beacon Therapeutics launched with $120mn in funding led by Syncona to develop a new generation of ophthalmic gene therapies for retinal diseases resulting in blindness.
Miami-based On.Energy secured $20mn in infrastructure/growth equity funding led by Ultra Capital to expand their North American battery energy storage system deployment.
Founded by Google DeepMind and Meta alumni only 4 weeks ago, Mistral AI has picked up $113mn in seed funding at a $260mn valuation led by Lightspeed.
Synthesia closed a $90mn Series C, led by Accel and with NVIDIA's nVentures, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and FirstMark all participating, pushing them to unicorn status.
Chemicals startup Albert Invent raised a $7.5mn seed round to continue developing its state-of-the-art, end-to-end R&D platform for the $5tn chemicals industry.
Axle Energy secured $1.6mn to accelerate the decarbonisation of the electricity grid.
Israeli drone maker Percepto raised a $67mn Series C and gets the FAA green light.
Boston-based STAT Health has emerged from stealth with $5.1mn in seed funding to combat cardiovascular disease using their revolutionary in-ear wearable technology.
Weather intelligence and climate security platform Tomorrow.io have raised $87mn in Series E funding to support its campaign to gather weather and climate data.
Defence startup Mach Industries has raised $5.7mn in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital, the first defence tech investment by the renowned Silicon Valley VC firm.
See the full list here.
Announced VC Fund Closes:
Nordic investor Voima Ventures have closed their third fund, with €90mn ($98mn) from LPs to focus on deeptech from research laboratories and university spinouts.
Recharge Capital closed the 1st tranche of its $200mn Women’s Healthcare Investment Vehicle, backed by prominent investors such as Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital.
Champagne-Worthy Exits (M&A & IPOs):
Novartis agreed to acquire clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Chinook Therapeutics for up to $3.5bn to expand its portfolio of kidney disease treatments.
Coherus BioSciences is set to acquire Surface Oncology in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $65mn to shore up its immuno-oncology pipeline.
Azitra, a Phase 1-ready dermatology biotech developing engineered bacterial therapies, has gone public on the NYSE at a valuation of just over $60mn, raising $7.5mn.
Key Hires and People Movements:
Long-term imec researcher and executive Bert Gyselinckx has joined imec.xpand - the institution's venture arm - as a partner to focus on opportunities in the Netherlands.
Tony Gingiss, formerly Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Virgin Orbit before its recent bankruptcy, has assumed the role of COO at satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital.
Tech entrepreneur Ian Hogarth is set to lead the UK’s AI Foundation Model Taskforce. (read the government press release here)
Policy & Government Initiatives:
A very busy week all around in the world of deeptech policy.
First up was the UK, with ministers announcing a £54mn ($69mn) funding boost to support AI research at UK universities - plus a further £45mn ($57mn) to further advance the UK’s quantum tech research and innovation. Both announcements came at London Tech Week.
Not to be outdone though, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $192mn in fresh funding for recycling batteries from consumer products, launching a new advanced battery R&D consortium and extending the Li+ Battery Recycling Prize, and also $135 million for 40 projects that will reduce carbon pollution from the industrial sector.
However, back on the continent, the EU has been criticised for continuing to fund Huawei in critical tech projects despite bans on the Chinese group. The Financial Times identified Huawei as “A participant in 11 projects under the flagship Horizon Europe research & innovation programme, receiving up to 14% of funding per scheme totalling €3.89mn.”
Lastly, and maybe in even more typical European style, lawmakers managed to vote through the landmark E.U. AI Act in parliament, and then marked the occasion by filing a new antitrust lawsuit against Google… on the same day (The Washington Post covered the day here).
That’s all for this week!
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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