DCVC: Investment Firm Applying Deep Tech

DCVC is a venture capital firm that works with entrepreneurs solving trillion-dollar problems using Deep Tech.

Today, the world faces hundreds of challenges ranging from unsustainable global manufacturing and untreated medical diseases to global food crises. DCVC is focused on solving these issues by partnering with innovative scientific and business minds and building a sustainable and effective approach to creating a better world.

For over 20 years, the company has invested in transformational industry giants in a variety of areas, ranging from robotics, pharmaceutical, and healthcare, to life sciences, and has generated billions of dollars in backing startups with transformational ideas. It supports companies from their earliest phases to shape their ideas into reality, elevate their market reach, and turn them into valued and reputed companies.

DCVC was co-founded by Matthew Ocko and Zachary Bogue in 2011. It is currently headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The co-founders are now joined in leadership by two other managing partners: Dr. John Hamer and Dr. Kiersten Stead. Previously, the company invested in synthetic biology, biotech, and the life sciences. In 2020, it raised a $350M fund for its Deep Tech-enabled life sciences companies.

In this article, we will review DCVC’s portfolio companies its expert team, and its interest in “DeepTech”.

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DCVC Portfolio Companies

DCVC invests in a spectrum of startups working in a variety of areas, ranging from building robots and rockets to molecular manufacturing™ and automation platforms.

DCVC’s portfolio companies are categorized based on their areas, which include:

  • Algorithmic Finance & Crypto
  • Anti-Terror & Security
  • Enterprise Enablement
  • Computational Bio
  • Computational Healthcare
  • Industrial Transformation
  • Smart Agriculture
  • Enterprise Enablement
  • Foundational Technology
  • Space Access & Intelligence

Algorithmic Finance & Crypto

A few examples of the portfolio companies included in this category are:

  • Axelar: Offers a decentralized network and tools to connect blockchain ecosystems, and facilitate smooth cross-chain communication for applications and users.
  • Chainlink Labs: Enables developers to create decentralized applications with a wide range of features while providing global enterprises with a universal gateway to blockchain technology. In simple terms, it enables the integration of smart contracts with external data feeds, internal systems, and the existing banking infrastructure.
  • Oasis Labs: Secures and preserves the integrity of your data by combining confidential computing with blockchain technology.

Computational Bio

DCVC’s investments in computational biology include companies like:

  • Human Diagnosis Project: A worldwide project created by the medical community to determine the probable diagnosis of any health problem. By contributing their parts, a global community helps to build a data collection to teach their peer communities and understand clinical reasonings.
  • Karius: Enables the detection of almost every human pathogen just from a single blood draw. The obtained results are delivered in less than one business day.
  • Medical Informatics:  Developed a platform that enables the continuous data collection from a range of devices, generating alarms for patient monitoring and care. The platform helps healthcare professionals in their decision-making processes.

Foundational Technology

A few examples of DCVC’s investments in foundational technology include:

  • Horizon Quantum Computing: An early-phase startup focused on driving the next computing revolution by building innovative software development tools.
  • Nervana Systems: An artificial intelligence software company that provides a full-stack software platform, Nervana Cloud, that enables businesses to create custom deep learning applications.

Industrial Transformation

DCVC has invested in a range of startups involved in industrial transformation, some of which are:

  • Advano: Dedicated to accelerating the renewable energy revolution by combining nanotechnology with fundamental chemical engineering.
  • Zymergen: The world’s first industrial-scale Molecular Manufacturing™ company. It combines robotic labs, AI, and proprietary insights to develop and deliver novel materials and products on a global scale.

Smart Agriculture

DCVC has invested in a number of companies related to smart agriculture, including:

  • Pivot Bio: Provides computationally tailored biological replacements for chemical fertilizer. The fertilizers are clean and energy-efficient and developed after understanding the crop microbiome using Pivot’s Bio proprietary AI.
  • Planet: Leading provider of global daily Earth data, which helps the decision-makers of industries like forestry, mapping, agriculture, and government to anticipate the accurate condition and take the right action.
  • CH4 Global: Building a global Asparagopsis aquaculture ecosystem that can be easily integrated into the current farming practices and mitigate climate change.

Space Access & Intelligence

Some portfolio companies in this area are:

  • Rocket Lab: Launched many satellites into orbit to deliver a range of complete rocket systems and technologies geared toward fast and low-cost payload deployment.
  • Capella Space: Dedicated to delivering reliable and persistent information from space regardless of weather or light conditions.

DCVC Team

The DCVC team consists of experts from many areas, including technical, scientific, investment, and operational areas. Below are the names of the managing partners and leaders of the DCVC firm.

Zachary Bogue

Zachary Bogue is a co-managing partner and co-founder of the DCVC firm. He holds 20 years of experience in different roles, ranging from an entrepreneur, advisor, attorney, venture capitalist, and angel investor.

Zack’s investment interests are mostly in building next-generation space informatics and robotics platforms, such as Planet Labs and Recursion Pharmaceuticals.

Matthew Ocko

Matt Ocko is a co-founder and co-managing partner at the DCVC venture firm. In the company, he lookout to support startups in the areas of computational drug discovery and synthetic biology, anti-terror systems, and geospatial and space access platform.

Dr. John Hamer

Dr. John Hamer is a managing partner at DCVC Bio. Prior to joining DCVC, he worked at Monsanto as a Vice President and Director of Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV).

Dr. Kiersten Stead

Dr. Kiersten Stead is a managing partner at the DCVC venture capital firm, where she is focused on investing in life science companies, such as those working in the areas of agriculture, synthetic biology, and therapeutics.

What Is Deep Tech?

Deep Tech is a term used for technologies that are based on advanced science and high-tech innovation and engineering, such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), biotech and quantum computing, and blockchain.

DCVC’s investment interests are rooted in Deep Tech, supporting startups that use highly-advanced technologies to develop and drive the solution to the world’s most challenging problems, such as life-threatening diseases, crop loss, climate change, and pollution.

Some of its portfolio companies that have had a major impact on the world include Pivot Bio, Zymergen, Recursion Pharma, and Planet Labs.

For more information on the DCVC firm and its portfolio companies, visit www.dcvc.com.  

Get Eyes Like DCVC on Your Lab with Excedr

DCVC is a venture capital firm with investment interest in computational biology, geospatial, artificial intelligence, risk transformation, cybersecurity, and smart agriculture companies.

The firm looks for companies that apply Deep Tech, such as AI, robotics, and biotechnology to create disruptive solutions for the world’s most pressing issues, such as diseases with unmet medical demands, unpredictable weather changes leading to crop loss, and energy conservation and environmental pollution.

However, implementing such sciences requires advanced, cutting-edge equipment, making it difficult for cash-strapped startups to generate the data needed to capture the attention of firms like DCVC that can provide the funding necessary to build Deep Tech-enabled solutions.

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Resources for founders, scientists, and the life sciences community.