I canβt believe weβre only a quarter of the way into the year, given how much is going on.
Jump in below for too many updates followed by spicy takes on deep tech π β€οΈ.
As always, thanks for reading!
We were excited to announce our investment in Valar Atomicβs $19M seed round. We were even more excited to visit the team in LA for the unveiling event of their Ward Zero thermal prototype. In ten months, the team constructed and pressure tested a 1:1 scale thermal prototype *and* signed an agreement with the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute to develop and deploy the worldβs first operational Gen IV micro-reactor. This team moves fast!
More raises! Aescape announced an $83M round led by Valor Equity Partners; Renovate announced an investment from Beacon; and Viam announced their $30M Series C round via Battery Ventures, Neurone, and USV.
Following last summerβs launch, Eyebot keeps expanding, with their Boston University kiosk breaking usage records! This CBS News segment digs in. Meanwhile Koop launched Housekeeper - an AI agent for compliance and insurance - while Mapless AI launched Corktown Carshare with Sway Mobility in Detroit.
Civ Robotics founder and CEO Tom Yeshurun was onstage at the NYRN Drones & Robotics Summit leading a discussion with the Aescape, Airwayz, Burro, and Reframe founders. All these founders are building and shipping - with Civ and Aescapeβs LinkedIn feeds full of happy customer proof points.
Rebecca Hu-Thrams of Glacier was also on stage at SXSW, talking about dirty jobs and a warming planet with our friend and co-investor Jay Kapoor of VSC Ventures. Co-founder Areeb Malik keeps shipping recycling robots, and Rebecca keeps winning awards. Congrats to this awesome team for Just Doing The Thing.
I moderated a panel at Manifest this year on The Future of Supply Chain & Logistics, and the conversation had so many applications to the future of robotics and automation that I had to share with you all.
I don't love Vegas, but I do love talking about robots, automation, deep tech, and how it is imperative that we automate if we are to accelerate human flourishing π€ π
I also did something interesting for this panel - I vibe coded a video β transcript tool (fun!) and then shoved the transcript into GPT for cleanup (impressive!). Tell me what you think of the result! Video & transcript summary are here.
1. Deep Tech doesnβt need much more capital than traditional tech. The average unicorn raises $350M or so on its path to exit, whether software or hardware. Folks avoiding deep tech because it is βcapital intensiveβ are wrong - deep tech only requires ~25% more capital on average. We think the wins are worth it, the numbers agree.
2. Hardware doesnβt need to be low margin! We see many deep tech companies combining software like margins with hardware moats. See this great post from Isaiah Taylor digging into this earlier.
3. Most robots wonβt be humanoids. Humanoids are awesome - and I probably should have invested in Figure π - but most future automation will be non-humanoid. We wonβt replace cars with humanoid powered palanquins π.
4. The world needs more programmers. Vibe coding is awesome and fun but you still need smart humans to make it all work - we might all become βQA for the AIβ - but the AI canβt ship without QA and human taste / guidance. Each company may need fewer programmers, but more companies will need programmers. The Law of Infinite Opportunities will deliver.
5. ChatGPT for robots is coming - when? - our friend James Falkoffβs take on βwhen will we have the ChatGPT of robotics?β is excellent, and with announcements like Jim Fanβs recent GR00T N1 foundation model, maybe the timelines pull in. The debate rages, with Nimble AIβs founder pointing out the that software is holding robotics back. My contrarian take? Iβll believe it when I see it. I find many demos are awesome but further from production reality than Iβd like.
In January we promised a landmark year for deep tech. Feeling pretty confident in that prediction 25% of the way through the year! Next time, weβll be speaking about our first space investment β¨ π°οΈ β¨ alongside deeper thinking on the manufacturing and logistics space, including thoughts on Larry Page spending his retirement years in a factory π β€οΈ.
Cheers,
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