Last Week in Deeptech - 25/07/2023
Welcome to the Deepsight weekly newsletter, where we run through last week's notable events in deeptech.
Last Week in News:
Start-ups seek to challenge Nvidia’s dominance over AI chip market (Financial Times)
Amazon to build $120mn facility in Florida to prep Kuiper satellites for launch (CNBC)
India's Tata chooses the UK for $5bn Jaguar Land Rover gigafactory (Reuters)
TL;DR - Venture Markets:
78 deeptech ventures collectively raised $1,229mn from investors.
1 VC fund announced closure, raising $1bn from limited partners.
5 companies achieved exits, creating $2,518mn in value for shareholders.
Featured Insights:
Podcast: The USIT guide in international perspective (Global University Venturing)
Domain-specific architectures and the future of compute (McKinsey)
Seraphim Space Index Q2 2023 (Seraphim)
Tech Breakthroughs & Partnerships:
Oxford chemists, in collaboration with University of Oxford spinout FluoRok, achieved a breakthrough in the hazard-free production of fluorochemicals (University of Oxford)
Eli Lilly donanemab drug shown to slow Alzheimer’s progression (Financial Times)
Fervo Energy achieve breakthrough with enhanced geothermal system (Bloomberg)
Vertical Aerospace completes first flying taxi test flight from Cotswold Airport (UKTN)
Our Top 10 Funding Picks:
OrganOx has raised $32mn to expand the rollout of its metra devices and continue the development of technology to support transplanted kidneys while it gears up for an IPO.
UK-based Tractable, which specializes in artificial intelligence using computer vision to assess the condition of cars and homes, has announced $65mn in Series E funding.
Subdron raised €1.3mn ($1.5mn) to decarbonize shipping with underwater inspections.
Optical chip designer Optalysys has raised £21mn in Series A financing from Lingotto, the Agnelli family investment fund, alongside imec.xpand and Northern Gritstone.
Sensorfact raised €25mn ($28mn) to improve resource efficiency of industrial SMEs.
San Mateo-based EpiBiologics has raised an additional $23mn from Digitalis Ventures, Taiho Ventures, and Codon Capital, extending their Series A funding to date to $70mn.
VitalConnect has secured over $30mn in an oversubscribed series F financing round.
London-based startup Facia has raised $1.2mn in a seed funding round, with plans to invest in liveness detection capabilities to layer with its facial recognition technology.
Neura Robotics bagged €53M to accelerate its cognitive robotics technology with AI.
Clinical stage biopharma company Renibus Therapeutics announced that it has raised $47mn from the initial closing of its Series B financing to begin its RBT-1 phase 3 trials.
See the full list here.
Announced VC Fund Closes:
Missed from last week: Azolla Ventures, launched out of the nonprofit Prime Coalition, announced the closure of their $239mn climate investment/philanthropy crossover fund focused on early-stage hardware startups with the potential for outsized impact if their tech scales.
California-based DCVC also announced more than $1bn in fresh funding to back companies with a competitive advantage rooted in AI or computing. (read the press release here)
Champagne-Worthy Exits (M&A & IPOs):
Novartis has acquired DTx Pharma, a biotechnology company developing methods to deliver oligonucleotide therapeutics, for up to $1bn ($500mn based on milestones).
G&H, a leading precision optics and photonics solutions provider, announced the acquisition of Artemis Optical for $11.5mn, a leader in advanced thin-film coatings.
Kelun-Biotech raised US$174mn at a $775mn valuation through its Hong Kong IPO to support its push into the competitive Chinese antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) market.
Clinical-stage biotech company Turnstone Biologics is also riding the biotech IPO wave, raising $80mn at an opening market cap of $256mn in a Friday morning IPO.
Priveterra Acquisition Corp announced the completion of its SPAC merger with AEON Biopharma, for an estimated $475mn, with the prospect of $125mn in arranged funding.
Key Hires and People Movements:
Dr Markus Kalousek and Dr Andrew Lightfoot have joined Biogeneration Ventures as Venture Partners, amongst a string of other promotions (full press release here).
Biotech startup EpiBiologics has hired former Genentech executive Ann Lee-Karlon as their new CEO, with cofounder/CEO Rami Hannoush moving into an advisory role.
PTC Therapeutics named veteran healthcare finance strategist Pierre Gravier as CFO.
Elektrofi has appointed Victoria Sluzky - who has been serving as a senior advisor to the company - as their newest CTO, to drive innovation and technical excellence.
Policy & Government Initiatives:
In the ongoing AI regulation debate, UKTN has published a couple of critical articles on the UK government’s current strategy, highlighting “significant gaps” and the potential for “startup challenges” in their approach to date.
On the other side of the pond, however, the discussions between the government and big tech seem to have made significant steps forwards, with the White House claiming that companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft agree to AI safeguards. (reported by WSJ here)
In other positive news, this time on the old continent, nuclear power has been reintroduced as one of the preferred green technologies to revitalise Europe’s industry, according to a political agreement struck by lawmakers in the European Parliament on the bloc’s proposed Net-Zero Industry Act. (Euractive break down the announcement here)
And last, but certainly not least, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare but significant appearance at the annual Future Technologies Forum Computing and Communications - joining an esteemed group of researchers, experts, and business leaders, with the focus squarely on the future of quantum technologies. (The Quantum Insider cover the speech 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 contact me via email: dan@deepsight.news.
Thanks for reading!
Dan