Michael Tolo’s Post

Want a front-row seat to the frontier of tech? We’ve got the role (or two) for you. 👀 We’re expanding our frontier-tech team at Blackbird by hiring a Frontier Tech Investments Associate and Foundry Fellows! Got questions? We've got answers... 1️⃣ What are the roles? 🧪 Associate = a full-time VC investment gig in our Blackbird Investments team, working directly with Michael Tolo. We’re looking for someone with a science and/or engineering background and more curiosity they can handle. You’ll grow your own investment brand and practice, support our portfolio founders, and will help build Foundry, our early-stage frontier-tech accelerator. ✨ Foundry Fellow = a casual/contract gig in our Blackbird Investments team, ~15h per week for 3 months. The Fellowship is ideal for PhD students and ECRs who want to learn more about startups and VC. You’ll go deep on emerging areas relevant to your expertise (or curiosity!), get a front-row seat to groundbreaking companies in those areas, build out your non-academic network, and develop a solid writing practice. 2️⃣ Why are you hiring? We love frontier tech, and we’re ready to grow our team. 3️⃣ Wow, it’s so great that you’re starting to look at deep tech! Look, we get it: we don’t make a lot of noise about our frontier-tech investing. Buuuut we’ve been deep-tech investors since we backed Tim Kentley-Klay to found Zoox back in 2014—we’ve been on incredible journeys with PsiQuantum, Inventia Life Science, Remedy Robotics, and more. We believe frontier technologies, and great frontier-tech investing, will be part of the solutions to the greatest problems humanity faces today. 4️⃣ When do applications close? May 31st at 11:59pm AEST. 5️⃣ I have more questions! I’m sure you do! Michael Tolo and Clare Birch are hosting an AMA to answer any and all questions about these roles. Want to know what a week in the life of our team looks like? What’s keeping us up at night? What our ideal candidate looks like? Come along and find out - registration link in the comments 👇 Apply for these roles: Associate - https://lnkd.in/gCfj4EUJ Foundry Fellowships - https://lnkd.in/gj6ATZVZ

Investment in deep tech reaches an all-time high 🌟 Here are the key insights... 💵 Venture Capital Funding: Deep tech now accounts for 20% of annual venture capital funding, which is double the figure from ten years ago. Driven by advancements in AI, semiconductor technologies, and gene editing. 📈 Funding Levels: The average size of deep tech investments has increased, with many investments now reaching $100 million or more. 🌎 Regional Breakdown: The US and China continue to lead the way with a combined 72% of the global share of deep tech funding. The landscape has begun to shift within Europe, as Dealroom findings show a staggering $16 billion in venture capital was poured into Deep Tech startups across Europe in 2023. #DeepTech #DeepTechCareers #Recruitment

APEX Ventures’ Ion Hauer featured in Tech.eu earlier this month to explain why we need more scientists in VC. Ion Hauer has a PhD in Quantum Physics but he always knew he wanted to work outside of academia and apply his knowledge to a business setting. This is where he started his journey to becoming a Principal at APEX Ventures. 🔬Having seen the importance of industry knowledge within VC, Ion provided his key reasons for why we should be encouraging more graduates with STEM backgrounds to join the world of VC: 🧪Venture capital is very suited to those with a scientific background- it involves developing hypotheses, gathering data and testing them against the facts. 🔎More VCs need people with scientific backgrounds, who can identify legitimate investments. 💡STEM graduates can provide valuable insights on what has the potential to be a future trend. To read Ion’s full article, check out the link below. Thank you again to Dan Taylor at TechEU for the feature! https://lnkd.in/eQRYd9fM #Scientists #VentureCapital #QuantumPhysics

I'm currently putting together a newsletter (vivianchan.substack.com) to share the latest startup and VC jobs in the Deeptech space. Quite a few people have asked me for intros or to tap into my network, so I thought I’d collate everything and share it with everyone. If you or your portfolio companies are hiring, let me know and I'll include it in the next edition! 🙌 Examples of available roles: AI Research Engineer, FutureHouse (AI, Non-profit research org backed by Eric Schmidt), San Francisco, US Head of Operations - AimHi Earth (Sustainability, Seed), Remote Clinical Laboratory Scientist - Juno Bio (Bioinformatics / Microbiomes, Seed), Oakland, California, US Deeptech/Climate Investor - Founders Factory (VC), London, UK or NY, US Bioinformatics Consultant - Deep Science Ventures (VC), London, UK VP Finance - Space Capital (VC), NY, US 📩 More in the first edition: vivianchan.substack.com #Deeptech #Startups #VentureCapital #JobOpportunities #Networking #TechJobs #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Hiring #Jobs #CareerGrowth

🇪🇺🔍 Europe boasts a robust deep tech sector, leading in research publications and STEM graduates. Despite this, commercializing breakthroughs has been a historical challenge. 🌐🔬 Encouraging scientists to venture into VC could bridge this gap, leveraging their expertise to identify and support startups. As Europe invests billions into deep tech, having scientist VCs fluent in scientific language is crucial for success. But how can policymakers and universities nurture this intersection of science and investment to drive innovation further? 🚀 #DeepTech #ScientistVCs #InnovationEurope  https://lnkd.in/d2bXZw_Y

🔈 A little pre-holidays treat: Latest exciting European Deep Tech Insights from Dealroom.co Lakestar and Walden Catalyst Ventures DeepTech = novel scientific or engineering breakthroughs making their way into products and companies for the first time. These are typically technologies solving: resource scarcity, physical & mental health, climate change cybersecurity, poverty and inequality, freedom and sovereignty. Some report highlights and challenges to address 🌐 European Leadership: With $15 billion YTD in 2023, deeptech defy the fintech sector's 70% decline. The EU-27 deeptech shows remarkable resilience, with 6% growth outperforming many other regions. 🏙️ European Hubs: Notable deeptech hubs include London ($12.8B), Stockholm ($10.3B), Paris ($7.7B), Munich ($4.9B), and Cambridge & Oxford jointly garnering $9 billion 💡 Top Three Deep Tech countries Investment were: UK ($3.4B), France ($3B) and Sweden ($3.2B) 🎓 Europe's strong educational sector contributes to its deeptech success. Home to six of the top 20 global universities for computer science, these are ETH Zürich University of Cambridge University of Oxford Technical University of Munich École Polytechnique Imperial College London Top 5 sectors are: 🤖 Novel AI: Investment soared to $1.3 billion in 2023, with a growth of over 50% 🖥️ Future of Compute - This is computing infrastructure, such as Quantum like Nu Quantum . The future of compute sees a 10% increase in investment, challenging global venture capital trends 🛰️ Space Tech: Use of space for new applications as well as improving satellite technologies ⚡Novel Energy: All about how we harness and consume energy 🧬 Computational Chemistry and Biology: Advancements in drug discovery, genomics, molecular simulations while AI is accelerating our understanding of complex biological and chemical processes Challenges: 🚀 Entrepreneurial Encouragement: Many Europeans still stigmatise failure too much. Our world changes for the better because some people see it differently - let's back these people. My experience of working with deep tech entrepreneurs is that they are genuinely driven by positive societal impact rather than making lots of money! 🔄 Harmonizing University IP Spinout Terms: to seamlessly bridge academia and industry. As well as creating fertile pathways for venture scientists to succeed which is what Founders at the University of Cambridge is all about...and this is just the beginning! 🧠🌐 Prioritize building dense talent clusters. Bringing brilliant minds together in strategic locations amplifies collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the impact of Deeptech innovation. For that reason, I think the UK is very lucky to have places like Oxford and Cambridge which excel at this. 📈 Increase the availability of patient capital as exits perform better but take longer! https://lnkd.in/ejc283Yn 🌟 #Deeptech #Innovation #EuropeanTechLeadership

This week I’ve met 2 Deep Tech founders in energy who made it to the last round of EIC Accelerator interviews. Both failed. And I’m SHOCKED. They have insane technologies. They have raised 10,000,000+ euros to date. They have a multi-million project pipeline in place. They have a 20-people A-team with R&D experience. But I’m sure the EIC preferred some early-stage university spin-off with a 5-people team. So what was their proposal killer? MARKET CONTEXT Technology A →  Produces B → To power C Since A, B and C are in different domains each… A jury of VC execs evaluated market potential based on A ❌, instead of C ✅. This put founders in a different market context, which completely killed their go-to-market strategy. Boom, rejected. If you're a Deep Tech founder, your investment narrative should always balance technology and market application. Grant evaluators might not be experts in your field. They might not know why you’re selling your technology the way you do. It’s your job to make them understand. Abstract technology?  Draw a line - Clearly explain your end-use cases. Complex market?  Build a bridge - Clearly explain your market fit. No clear narrative? No funding. PS All this is especially relevant for markets with high interdependency between technologies (called “sector-coupling” in energy 👇🏻).

The SaaS startup playbook doesn’t work in deep tech. “Move fast and break things” doesn’t apply when building nuclear reactors or bioengineering cell therapies. That’s why we built 5050, “a cheat code for starting a deep tech startup.” (quote from an alumni) Applications are open! www.fiftyyears.com/5050 5050 is a program to help scientists and engineers start indispensable companies. We’ve distilled everything we know about deep tech startups into a two phase program. Phase I: Explore We’ll help you answer: How do I turn my breakthrough science into a business? What do I need to make a startup idea work? How do I recruit a world-class team Am I ready to be a founder? We'll help you diagnose and mitigate risks and pivot quickly if necessary. At the end of Explore, those ready to build a startup will be invited to the next phase, Build Phase II: Build You’ll join a select cohort of the most high-speed founders solving massive world problems. Build will help you de-risk their technology, hit milestones, raise a first round, and reach takeoff speed faster than you think is possible. You’ll learn everything you need to know about starting a deep tech company and what it takes to become a world class entrepreneur. At @fiftyyears, we’ve backed over 100 deep tech startups, helped them raise over 4.6 billion dollars, and supported our founders in achieving many firsts: ➜ the first carbon-negative molecule factory ➜ the first cultivated meat approved in the U.S. ➜ the first microgeo satellite for internet connectivity ➜ the first in-orbit space pharma drug factory ➜ the first de novo synthesis of a 1000+ base DNA molecule ➜ and many more Whether you’re validating an idea or ready to build — 5050 is for you. Apply! ➜ www.fiftyyears.com/5050

"Deep tech is the best place to invest and build right now" by Leo Polovets "While this post focuses on the financial performance of deep tech companies, investors and founders should also consider the opportunity to have a monumental impact on the world. Most startups are highly impactful on some group of people, and for deep tech companies both the impact and the size of the group tend to be much larger. Now is a better time than ever to build deep tech companies: off the shelf technology keeps improving, there are lots of funding and grant options, there are many successful deep tech companies to poach talent from, and macro trends like reshoring provide strong tailwinds for ambitious ideas." #deeptech #techtransfer https://lnkd.in/dxCCQVYw

Congratulations to the following quantum or quantum-related companies for securing funding in September 2023: 👉 Nanofiber Quantum Technologies Inc. (NanoQT), secured $8.5 million in funding. The company aims to develop quantum processing units (QPUs) using a proprietary nanofiber cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) system. Their QPUs are designed to operate as quantum repeaters and distributed computational units. The funding will be used to accelerate research and development, onboard talent from the US and Japan, and foster collaborations with academia and private corporations. 👉 Delft Circuits has raised ~$6.7 million in a Series A funding round. The investment will be used primarily to upgrade the production capacity and finance the necessary growth of their team. The round was led by DeepTechXL, a 100 M€ deep tech venture capital fund, with participation from HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds. DeepTechXL contributed ~$5.2 million to the funding round. 👉 Kuano has announced the completion of its ~$2.2 million seed funding round. The funding will be used to accelerate the development and validation of Kuano's quantum simulation platform for enzyme-targeted drug discovery. The company's quantum simulation platform combines quantum mechanics with AI to design the next generation of medicines. The round was led by Mercia Ventures and included participation from ACF Investors, Ascension Ventures, o2h Ventures, Meltwind Advisory LLP, and other angel investors. 👉 Orange Quantum Systems has raised ~$1.6 million in seed funding for its innovative Quantum Diagnostics Libraries (QDL) and Orange Rack. The company's technology aims to advance the quantum chip industry's transition from the laboratory to large-scale production by reducing the test cost per qubit. Orange QS's Orange Rack offers automated qubit testing, which is a significant improvement over the current testing procedures that often require a cryogenic lab facility and a team of dedicated quantum engineers. 👉  ColibriTD closed a $1 million seed funding round to develop a quantum-as-a-service platform that aims to make quantum computing universally accessible for all industries. The funding will be used to drive the development of this hardware-agnostic quantum-as-a-service platform that operates on existing imperfect quantum hardware. ✅ Quantum or quantum-related companies raised at least $20 million in venture capital during the month of September. 💻 All data sourced from our intelligence platform. Sign up at: https://lnkd.in/eYSHskCD