DCVC
Canvas Category Consultancy : Company : Venture Capital
DCVC backs entrepreneurs solving trillion-dollar problems to multiply the benefits of capitalism for everyone while reducing its costs. Deep Tech is a potent approach to this challenge that enables more for less - now and for this century. For over twenty years, DCVC and its principals have backed brilliant entrepreneurs applying Deep Tech, from the earliest stage and beyond, to pragmatically and cost-effectively tackle previously unsolvable problems in nearly every industry, especially those that haven’t seen material technological progress in decades. Together, we have created tens of billions of dollars of value while also making the world a markedly better place.
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Slip Robotics Raises $28M Series B Financing Led by DCVC
Slip Robotics, a next-generation provider of automated truck-loading robots-as-a-service, has raised a $28 million Series B financing led by DCVC, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in deep tech. The investment reflects Slip’s rapid growth with industry-leading customers – including John Deere, GE Appliances, Valeo, and Nissan – who are using SlipBots to load and unload any truck in just 5 minutes.
Slip Robotics is tackling one of the supply chain’s universal inefficiencies: truck loading and unloading. For over 100 years, truck trailers have been loaded and unloaded using the same basic methods. Because of this, truckers spend 23% of their workday idling at loading docks waiting for forklift operators to load and unload their trailers, while forklift operators rush to carry freight between the trailer and staging area despite 25% of all industrial accidents taking place at the loading dock.
Slip empowers people to auto-load and auto-unload any truck in just 5 minutes using SlipBots. SlipBots cut conventional 30 to 60-minute loading times to just 5 minutes, providing a faster, safer, and scalable solution for growing logistics demands. Unlike other automated solutions, SlipBots handle any type of freight, at any dock, with no infrastructure modification, and with zero Wi-Fi or complex IT integration required. This broad applicability and ease of deployment has fueled Slip’s rapid adoption and expansion with customers.
Valeo, a multinational automotive parts manufacturer, used SlipBots to reduce their trailer load/unload times from 30 minutes to just 5 minutes. SlipBots seamlessly integrated into their operations, enabling employees to increase dock throughput by 6x, reduce forklift traffic by 8x, and increase safety at the loading dock.
Radiant Secures $100 Million in Series C Funding, Plans Milestone Test at INL’s DOME Facility
Radiant Industries, Incorporated, a leader in advanced nuclear technology, today announced a $100 million Series C funding round led by DCVC, a preeminent deep tech venture capital firm. The round included participation from a16z’s American Dynamism team, which led the Series B, and Union Square Ventures, and welcomed new investors Felicis, Washington Harbour Partners LP, and Chevron Technology Ventures. This investment comes on the heels of Radiant’s passive cooldown demonstration, a critical test of a full-scale, non-fueled reactor, and brings the company’s total venture funding to $160 million.
The funding will primarily be used to complete Radiant’s Kaleidos Development Unit, the same reactor design that will be manufactured and sold to customers. At INL, the unit will undergo a comprehensive testing program including rigorous evaluations of the reactor’s failsafe mechanisms and proprietary semi-automated control system, providing validation cases for regulatory analyses. Funds will also be used for factory siting and early construction efforts, breaking ground on the facilities that are expected to produce up to 50 microreactors per year.
Equilibrium Energy Signs New Battery Tolls, Enters California, Celebrates Its Market-Leading Battery Management Performance, Welcomes New Executive Hires, and Closes Its Series B Fundraise
Equilibrium Energy, a technology company building a next-generation clean power company, announced its market entry into California; signing of new battery tolls with top tier developer Ormat; closing of a $39M Series B venture fundraising led by deep tech stalwart investor DCVC and including top tier institutional investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Valo Ventures; its market-leading battery management performance in Texas; and the hiring of industry veterans to join its executive ranks. The three-year old startup is combining the best of Silicon Valley technology with its deep experience in running competitive power companies to achieve its aim of accelerating society’s transition to clean energy.
Equilibrium has continued the growth of its battery tolling portfolio by adding two additional full offtake tolls with renewable energy developer Ormat. Equilibrium will take over operations of two 60 MW/120MWh Ormat projects in ERCOT in 2025.
Equilibrium also recently expanded into the California power market with its signing of an offtake toll for a 40MW/40MWh operating battery in July. Overall, Equilibrium now has 260MW / 380MWh of contracted battery tolls across ERCOT and CAISO. The company continues to build out its operational portfolio via its 6GW and growing battery tolling pipeline.
Tidal Metals Announces $8.5 Million Series Seed Funding Led by DCVC for Revolutionary Technology to Safely and Economically Extract Magnesium Metal from Seawater
Tidal Metals announced the completion of its $8.5 million Series Seed funding round led by DCVC with participation from First Spark Ventures and Bidra Innovation Ventures. The financing will fund the development and construction of a commercial pilot plant to demonstrate Tidal Metals’ breakthrough technology for extracting primary magnesium metal from seawater.
Tidal Metals has developed a revolutionary technology that will produce magnesium metal at competitive prices using a carbon neutral and environmentally harmless process. Magnesium is the second most abundant metal in seawater, averaging 1.3 kilograms per cubic meter. However, historical techniques that relied on chemical extraction proved to be economically uncompetitive and environmentally harmful. Without new innovations, the world cannot recover any of the magnesium contained in discharged desalination brine each year, estimated at over one hundred times the current global magnesium production of one million tons per year.
unspun Raises $32M in Oversubscribed Series B Funding to Transform Fashion Supply Chains with Groundbreaking 3D Weaving Technology
unspun, the industry leader in 3D weaving technology, announced $32M in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by DCVC, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon and SOSV. The funding will fuel the rapid scaling of unspun’s innovative 3D weaving technology, Vega™—designed to help brands realize a low-inventory, nearshore and automated supply-chain for woven products, which represent 57% of the total apparel market, —as the company expands its operations in Europe and North America.
Vega™ is the world’s first 3D weaving technology for apparel. It takes thousands of yarns and weaves them into garments in minutes, allowing for (almost) zero-waste, on-demand manufacturing. This technology unlocks scalable on-demand or low-inventory production.
Fourth Power Secures $19M for Low-Cost Utility-Scale Thermal Energy Storage to Enable a Fully Renewable Grid
To meet the growing demand for renewable energy on the grid, Fourth Power has received $19 million in Series A funding to scale its cost-effective groundbreaking thermal battery technology. The investment round was led by the venture capital firm DCVC, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and Black Venture Capital Consortium. In addition to helping scale the company’s thermal energy storage solution, which can store energy for both short- and long-term durations to be put back on the grid as electricity, the investment will initiate the construction of a 1 MWh-e prototype facility outside Boston, with a 2026 anticipated completion date.
🚚 Amogy Secures $139 Million Series B-1 Round of Funding, Moving the Transportation Industry Closer to Clean Energy
Amogy Inc., a pioneer of emission-free, energy-dense ammonia power solutions, today announced its $139 million Series B-1 fundraising. The round was led by SK Innovation, joined by other global investors including Temasek, Korea Zinc, Aramco Ventures, AP Ventures, MOL PLUS, Yanmar Ventures, Zeon Ventures and DCVC. This funding will enable Amogy to continue its organizational development to support commercialization, begin manufacturing of its innovative ammonia-to-power technology, and bring its first product to market in 2024.
Micro-fulfillment center automation startup Fulfil Solutions gains $60 million in funding
Fulfil Solutions announced today that it has emerged from stealth, with a B funding round of $60 million, and touting its robotic solution for grocery micro-fulfillment centers (MFCs), which it adds can be implemented in way that makes MFCs profitable. The $60 million Series B round of funding led by Eclipse with participation from Khosla Ventures and DCVC.
Recycleye raises additional $17m in Series A funding to reinvent recycling
Recycleye, provider of the most adapted and robust AI-driven solution for sorting dry mixed recycling, today announced a $17m Series A financing round, led by deep-tech venture capital firm DCVC.
Recycleye uses AI-powered waste-picking robots to lower the cost of sorting materials. This ground-breaking technology is turning the world’s waste into resource and delivering data essential for dynamic decision-making in a Material Recovery Facility (MRF). The new investment will be used to further improve the uncommon accuracy of Recycleye’s sorting.
Fervo Energy Raises $138 Million for 24/7 Carbon-Free Next-Generation Geothermal Energy
Fervo Energy, the leader in next-generation geothermal power, announced that it had raised $138 million in new funding led by DCVC to build, own, and operate 24/7 carbon-free power plants. Other new investors included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Liberty Energy, Macquarie, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Impact Science Ventures, and Prelude Ventures. The round also saw strong participation from existing investors such as Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, 3X5 Partners, Helmerich & Payne, and Elemental Excelerator.
Fervo has adapted innovations pioneered by the oil and gas industry, such as horizontal drilling and distributed fiber optic sensing, to make reservoirs of hot rock that exist beneath the earth’s surface into practical, economically viable, clean sources of energy. The new funding helps Fervo complete power plants in both Nevada and Utah and evaluate new projects in California, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and internationally.
Citrine Informatics Raises $7.6M to Revolutionize Materials-Driven Product Development With AI
Citrine Informatics, the chemicals and materials artificial intelligence (AI) platform, announced it has closed a $7.6 million Series A led by Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, DCVC (Data Collective), and Prelude Ventures. Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures and XSeed Capital also joined the round. Citrine combines AI with the world’s largest materials database to help bring products to market faster. The company will use the funding to accelerate its early successes with Fortune 1000 customers.
Factories are getting smarter, yet the chemicals and alloys that produce cutting-edge products remain largely unchanged. The consequence of this mismatch is painful delay and cost to manufacturers. According to the National Academy of Sciences, new products can take two decades or more to go from initial design to market, with the intermediate step of developing new materials often taking the longest. Citrine dramatically reduces the time and cost of this process by providing a data-driven approach to predict and optimize materials behavior.