💸 €600M AI Defense; $105M Rocket Scale-Up; $650M Sodium Reactors; $18M CO₂-to-Cement ; $23M Energy-Lite Plastic Recycling & more..| Deep Tech Capital Movements Vol. 23
The Week’s State of Deep Tech Capital: who’s Raising, who’s Betting, and why.
Welcome back to Deep Tech Capital Movements — the weekly report from The Scenarionist that tracks and highlights capital dynamics in deep tech, from early-stage funding rounds to major fund launches.
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Dear Friends,
Another Monday, another ledger of intention. Capital this week moved with the deliberation of operators who know where the fault lines are forming—across materials, energy, autonomy, and the bio-industrial stack—and who are assembling options before prices re-rate. We tracked + 40 capital movements, each one driven less by momentum marketing and more by stress-tested supply, cash-flow visibility, and geopolitical hedging.
The materials narrative opened in Finland, where Hypermine combined private cash with an intellectual-property contribution from VTT, the national tech lab. Its hyperspectral ore-sorters promise to wring extra nickel and copper from existing rock, nudging Europe’s critical-minerals gap a little narrower. Switzerland’s DePoly pulled in $23 million to depolymerize mixed PET at room temperature—more regulatory arbitrage than pure chemistry play, as EU recycled-content quotas start to bite. Farther afield, Canada’s Carbon Upcycling raised $18 million to mineralize flue-gas CO₂ into low-clinker cement additives, converting what used to be a scope-three liability into a scope-one asset.
Energy resilience turned up next. Finnish pioneer Polar Night Energy is syndicating a Series A around a 100 MWh “sand battery,” stashing summer electrons as winter heat and betting on widening seasonal spreads in Nordic power. Oslo-based ONiO collected €5 million to mass-produce microcontrollers that cold-start on microwatts scavenged from ambient RF—delete the coin cell and you delete lithium exposure, logistics drag, and recycling overhead at once. Berlin’s Ostrom, flush with €20 million, automates retail tariff arbitrage and boasts churn 40 percent below legacy utilities, while Barcelona’s Tether raised a lean €1.3 million to choreograph idle EVs as distributed storage the grid never paid to build. Even the €1 million seed for Dutch outfit HeatLeap matters: its clip-on heat pump slots into existing radiators, letting social-housing operators hedge fuel inflation without invasive retrofits.
Autonomy and defense absorbed the week’s largest checks—and its most telling small ones. Berlin-based Helsing sealed €600 million to mass-produce AI-enabled drones and submarine autonomy after successful Saab fighter-jet trials. California’s Mach Industries added $100 million for jet-assisted VTOL munitions, while X-Bow Systems raised $105 million to triple U.S. solid-rocket-motor output with additive propellant grains. Lower on the cap-table but high on urgency, Sweden’s Swebal drew €3 million to reshore TNT via continuous-flow nitration, and Eindhoven’s LiveDropbanked $2.5 million to TEMPEST-harden cold-chain sensors that double as secure edge nodes. Procurement speed, not slide-deck TAM, is where pricing power lies.
Food, ag, and bio-manufacturing marched in step. Swedish agritech BlueRedGold captured €2.7 million for robotized saffron farms that multiply yield fifteen-fold and cut water use by 90 percent. Fiberwood tapped an additional €3.1 million EU innovation grant for carbon-negative insulation boards, while Dutch player Rival Foods locked in €10 million to install the world’s largest shear-cell line, driving plant fillets toward chicken parity. Edmonton’s Future Field extended to $8 million, scaling fruit-fly bioreactors that sidestep the feedstock inflation dogging microbial fermentation. Belgian newcomer Fungu’it, Greek B-Corp Plan(e)t Foods, and U.S. ag-biotech Saluna reinforce the same motif: platforms able to flex with input volatility and regulatory drift are getting the nod.
Digital compliance tech logged lighter headlines but sticky revenue streams. Helsinki’s Ovido banked €2.4 million to slash CSRD-related onboarding time, and New York’s Supply Wisdom added $14 million to turn continuous third-party risk into a managed-data feed instead of quarterly questionnaires. Extend combined seed and Series A for $17 million to automate document routing with a human-in-the-loop, while Cluely stirred debate yet still raised $15 million by converting real-time prompt engineering into enterprise training lift.
Fund formation mirrored operators’ pragmatism. Analog Devices set aside $80 million for edge-signal processing bets upstream of its ASIC road map. State-owned Sinopec launched a ¥5 billion hydrogen fund, de-risking electrolyzer startups by guaranteeing offtake across 144 existing stations, while Hyundai’s ₩125 billion ZER01NE III positions robotics and cybersecurity modules directly inside group plants. New Zealand’s Outset Ventures closed NZ$41.5 million for hardware-heavy climate bets; Cairo’s DisrupTech returned to market with a $70 million target for MENA fintech and AI; C5 Capital assembled $750 million for nuclear-adjacent energy security; and Cathay Innovation finalized a $1 billion vertical-AI fund flanked by twenty multinationals. Amplify Partners’ three-vehicle, $900 million raise signals that deep-tech dry powder remains ample.
The common thread: capital is flowing to solutions that can plug quickly and compliantly into existing infrastructure—whether bolting a sand battery into district heat, certifying an RF-harvesting chip for EMC, or navigating export-control frameworks for autonomous drones.
Three macro levers stitch these moves together. First, industrial policy has jumped from white papers to enforceable mandates—critical-materials acts, hydrogen credits, recycled-content quotas—turning compliance into forecastable revenue. Second, input-price shocks have recast storage, recycling, and efficiency as cash-flow stabilizers CFOs can model today. Third, geopolitical fracture has collapsed the discount once assigned to dual-use; sovereign LPs increasingly treat autonomy and resilient supply chains as impact allocations, not headline liabilities.
Scroll on for the annotated stack of rounds, fund closes, and signal-rich bets that crossed our radar this week. May the signals help you beat the noise.
See you next Monday—enjoy the read!
Giulia
P.S. Deep Tech Capital Movements moves to the archive after 7 days. Join The Scenarionist Premium for anytime access.
Startup Deal Activities to Watch
🔸 BlueRedGold Attracts €2.7 M to Robotize Indoor Saffron Farming
Swedish agritech BlueRedGold raised €2.7 million led by Paulig’s PINC fund to scale a vertical-farm module where robotic arms plant, pick, and trim saffron crocuses year-round. The system boosts stigma yield 15× per m² versus field cultivation and slashes water use by 90 %.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Sweden, Europe
Industry: Controlled-Environment Ag
Sector: High-Value Spices
Tech: Robotics, AI-Crop Monitoring
🔸 Fiberwood Nabs Additional €3.1 M to Scale Carbon-Storing Panels
In a separate announcement, Fiberwood revealed a €3.1 million EU Innovation Fund grant that complements its LIFE award, fully funding a second production line. The combined grants position Fiberwood to reach 100,000 m³ capacity and pursue Cradle-to-Cradle certification. The firm targets Nordic prefab home builders seeking low-carbon envelopes.
Deal: EU Innovation Grant
Region: Finland, Europe
Industry: Green Building Materials
Sector: Wood-Fiber Insulation
Tech: Carbon-Negative Panels
🔸 Xatoms Raises $3 M Pre-Seed for AI-Driven Water Purification
UK-based Xatoms closed a $3 million pre-seed round to combine quantum-chemistry simulations with AI-guided material discovery, accelerating photocatalysts that strip metals and pathogens from water in 30 minutes under sunlight or LEDs. The capital funds lab expansion and 10 pilot units across South Asia. Xatoms forecasts a 70 % cost reduction versus reverse osmosis.
Deal: Pre-Seed
Region: United Kingdom, Europe
Industry: Cleantech
Sector: Water Treatment
Tech: AI/Quantum Material Discovery, Photocatalysis
🔸 DePoly Secures $23 M to Recycle “Unrecyclable” Plastics
Swiss startup DePoly landed $23 million to scale its room-temperature chemical recycling process that converts mixed and colored PET waste back into virgin-grade monomers. Unlike high-heat pyrolysis, the photochemical approach consumes far less energy and tolerates food-grade contaminants. Funds will go toward a 500-ton pilot plant near Sion slated for Q3 2026.
Deal: Seed+ (Early VC)
Region: Switzerland, Europe
Industry: Circular Economy
Sector: Plastic Recycling
Tech: Low-Energy Photochemical Depolymerization
🔸Swebal Raises €3 M to Build Sweden’s First TNT Factory
Defense-chemicals newcomer Swebal attracted €3 million from EQT co-founder Thomas von Koch and former Swedish Army chief Karl Engelbrektson to re-shore TNT production now sourced mainly from Asia. A greenfield plant in Nora aims to output 4,000 tons annually by 2027, reinforcing Europe’s ammunition supply chain. Management stresses modest margins but high strategic value.
Deal: Seed/Project Finance
Region: Sweden, Europe
Industry: Defense Chemicals
Sector: Energetic Materials
Tech: Continuous-Flow Nitration
🔸 Polar Night Energy Lines Up Series A to Scale “Sand Battery” Storage
Finnish thermal-storage pioneer Polar Night Energy is raising its first Series A to finance a 100 MWh sand-based battery that feeds district-heating networks at 1 MW output. The 2,000-ton soapstone core, already contracted, proves long-duration heat storage at industrial scale. Proceeds will industrialize modular 10 MWh units for export.
Deal: Series A
Region: Finland, Europe
Industry: Energy Storage
Sector: Thermal Batteries
Tech: High-Temp Sand Reservoirs
🔸 Hypermine Raises Undisclosed Seed Round to Boost AI-Driven Mineral Recovery
Finnish spin-out Hypermine closed its seed round to commercialize computer-vision and hyperspectral-imaging “ore-sorting” systems that recover more minerals from the same ton of rock, cutting both waste and emissions. Investors Stephen Industries and Sage Enterprises joined VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which contributed intellectual-property instead of cash, underscoring national interest in resilient raw-materials supply chains. The funding will expand Hypermine’s engineering team and support pilot deployments at Nordic mines.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Finland, Europe
Industry: Mining Technology
Sector: Ore Sorting & Recovery
Tech: AI Vision, Hyperspectral Imaging
🔸 ONiO Raises €5 M for Battery-Free Microcontrollers
Oslo-based ONiO secured €5 million to ramp production of ONiO.zero, a RISC-V MCU that cold-starts on <1 µW harvested from ambient RF, solar, or vibration. Node.vc and Maki.vc co-led the round, citing potential to eliminate billions of coin-cells in IoT devices. Funds will finance a 40 nm tape-out and developer kits.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Norway, Europe
Industry: Semiconductors
Sector: Ultra-Low-Power IoT
Tech: Energy-Harvesting MCUs
🔸 Ostrom Bags €20 M to Expand Digital Green-Power Supply
Berlin startup Ostrom, a “green electricity-as-a-service” provider, raised €20 million led by Union Square Ventures to scale its AI tariff-optimization app that automatically buys renewable power when prices dip. Proceeds will triple its engineering staff and launch in France and Spain. Ostrom claims 40 % lower churn than legacy utilities.
Deal: Series A
Region: Germany, Europe
Industry: Energy Retail
Sector: Digital Utilities
Tech: AI Tariff Optimization, Smart-Meter APIs
🔸 TerraPower Adds $650 M to Advance Small Modular Reactors
Bill Gates-founded TerraPower attracted NVIDIA’s NVentures and HD Hyundai in a $650 million raise, lifting total funding beyond $1.4 billion. Cash accelerates the 345 MW Natrium sodium-fast reactor in Wyoming, marrying thermal salt storage for flexible output ideal for AI data-center loads. Licensing submission is slated for 2026.
Deal: Growth Equity
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Advanced Nuclear
Sector: SMR Power Generation
Tech: Sodium-Fast Reactors, Molten-Salt Thermal Buffer
🔸 Tether Nets €1.3 M Pre-Seed to Turn EVs Into Grid Batteries
Barcelona-based Tether closed a €1.3 million pre-seed round led by Draper B1 and K Fund to commercialize software that orchestrates millions of parked EVs as distributed storage, cutting EU grid-balancing costs. Pilots with Audi and Zeekr show a potential 7,300 t CO₂ reduction per MW over a vehicle’s life.
Deal: Pre-Seed
Region: Spain, Europe
Industry: Energy Flexibility
Sector: Vehicle-to-Grid
Tech: AI Fleet Orchestration, ISO Market API
🔸 HeatLeap Secures €1 M to Deliver Gas-Free Heating in Social Housing
Dutch climate-tech firm HeatLeap raised €1 million to deploy its plug-and-play indoor heat-pump with thermal storage that reuses existing radiators, avoiding costly retrofits. Arket Ventures led the round, and funds support a summer rollout across five housing associations. HeatLeap claims 60 % CO₂ savings per home.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Netherlands, Europe
Industry: Building Tech
Sector: Residential Heating
Tech: Compact Heat-Pump + Thermal Battery
🔸 Rival Foods Raises €10 M Series B to Double Whole-Cut Capacity
Dutch food-tech Rival Foods secured €10 million to install the world’s largest shear-cell unit, enabling price-parity plant-based chicken and beef fillets. Pension investor ABP led the round, joined by Pymwymic and ROM Utrecht. Capacity is set to reach several hundred tons per year by 2026.
Deal: Series B
Region: Netherlands, Europe
Industry: Alternative Protein
Sector: Plant-Based Whole Cuts
Tech: Shear-Cell Texturization
🔸 Future Fields Closes $8 M Series A for Fruit-Fly Biomanufacturing
Edmonton-based Future Fields raised $8 million to expand its EntoEngine platform, using genetically engineered fruit flies to express complex proteins at lower cost than microbial fermentation. Toyota Ventures joined Amplify Capital and BDC Climate Fund in the oversubscribed round. Funds build a 10× larger insect-rearing facility.
Deal: Series A
Region: Canada, North America
Industry: Biomanufacturing
Sector: Recombinant Proteins
Tech: Insect Cell-Factory Platform
🔸 Fungu’it Raises €4 M Seed to Turn Farm Waste into Natural Flavorings
Belgian startup Fungu’it closed €4 million to commercialize solid-state fermentation that converts brewers’ grain and fruit pomace into umami-rich natural flavor concentrates. The capital supports a demo plant near Ghent and regulatory filings under EU Novel Foods.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Belgium, Europe
Industry: FoodTech
Sector: Natural Ingredients
Tech: Solid-State Fungal Fermentation
🔸 Ovido Secures €2.4 M Seed for Supply-Chain Data Automation
Helsinki SaaS firm Ovido landed €2.4 million from Lifeline Ventures and Kvanted to democratize compliance data across textile and consumer-goods supply chains. Its API aggregates certifications and traceability docs, cutting supplier onboarding time by 70 %. Funds fuel EU expansion ahead of incoming CSRD rules.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Finland, Europe
Industry: Enterprise SaaS
Sector: Supply-Chain Compliance
Tech: Data Graph API, AI Document Parsing
🔸 Saluna Raises $1.5 M Seed to Advance Hemp Genetics
St. Louis ag-biotech Saluna closed a $1.5 million seed round to accelerate CRISPR-assisted breeding of low-THC, high-fiber hemp cultivars for industrial textiles. Investors include The Yield Lab and Arch Angels. The company will expand greenhouse capacity and file three cultivar patents by year-end.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Ag-Biotech
Sector: Industrial Hemp
Tech: CRISPR Breeding, Phenotyping Analytics
🔸 Plan(e)t Foods Raises €1.05 M to Scale Functional Plant-Based Ice-Cream
Athens B-Corp Plan(e)t Foods snagged €1.05 million to expand its carbon-negative, fiber-enriched vegan ice-cream range across Southern Europe. The seed round, disclosed via Vegconomist, funds a new HPP filling line and probiotic R&D. The brand reports 50 % repeat-purchase in Greek supermarkets.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Greece, Europe
Industry: Food & Beverage
Sector: Plant-Based Dairy
Tech: Oat/Coconut Matrix, High-Pressure Processing
🔸 Engrate Picks Up €2.5 M Pre-Seed for Plug-and-Play Energy Integration
Stockholm startup Engrate raised €2.5 million to commercialize a hardware-agnostic edge controller that harmonizes solar, batteries, and heat-pumps in commercial buildings. Early pilots show 25 % lower peak demand charges. Funds will certify the product under EU cybersecurity rules.
Deal: Pre-Seed
Region: Sweden, Europe
Industry: Energy Management
Sector: Building EMS
Tech: Edge-AI Optimization, OpenADR
🔸 LiveDrop Raises $2.5 M Seed for Encrypted Data-at-Rest Medical Devices
LiveDrop closed a $2.5 million oversubscribed seed round to ruggedize its cold-chain IV and blood-sample monitors that also serve as secure edge-computing nodes for defense users. Capital supports FDA submission and NATO TEMPEST certification.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: Eindhoven
Industry: Med-Defense Tech
Sector: Secure Cold-Chain Devices
Tech: Zero-Trust Embedded Systems
🔸 Helsing Raises €600 M to Scale European Defense-AI Stack
Daniel Ek’s investment firm Prima Materia led a €600 million round that values Berlin-based Helsing at €12 billion. Funds will mass-produce AI-enabled drones and submarine-grade autonomy, building on successful Saab fighter-jet trials. Helsing plans an IPO once European export rules clarify.
Deal: Series C
Region: Germany, Europe
Industry: Defense AI
Sector: Autonomous Systems
Tech: Edge Computer Vision, Multi-Domain Fusion
🔸 Mach Industries Confirms $100 M Series B for Long-Range Weapons
Two-year-old Mach Industries closed a $100 million Series B led by Khosla and Bedrock, valuing the MIT-dropout-founded company at $470 million. The startup is developing jet-powered VTOL drones, high-altitude glide weapons, and satellite-grade sensing platforms, with a 115,000 ft² factory under construction in Huntington Beach.
Deal: Series B
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Defense Technology
Sector: Hypervelocity & VTOL Weapons
Tech: Jet-aided Propulsion, AI Targeting
🔸 Tadaweb Raises €17.3 M to Enrich OSINT for Cyber-Defense Teams
Luxembourg-based Tadaweb closed €17.3 million to scale its “small-data” engine that maps obscure web content into actionable open-source intelligence within minutes. The round backs FedRAMP certification and a Washington, DC office. Tadaweb counts NATO SOCs among early adopters.
Deal: Series A
Region: Luxembourg, Europe
Industry: Cybersecurity
Sector: OSINT Platforms
Tech: Graph Analytics, AI Summarization
🔸 Carbon Upcycling Raises $18 M to Turn Captured CO₂ into Low-Carbon Cement
Calgary-based Carbon Upcycling secured $18 million to commercialize its mechano-chemical reactor that mineralizes industrial waste with CO₂, producing cement supplements that cut clinker content by up to 20 %. Funding will build a 5,000 t/yr plant adjacent to a Lafarge kiln in Alberta.
Deal: Series A
Region: Canada, North America
Industry: Carbontech
Sector: CO₂ Utilization
Tech: Solid-Mineral Carbonation
🔸 X-Bow Systems Closes $105 M Series B to Scale Solid-Rocket Motors
New Mexico-based X-Bow raised $105 million with strategic investor Lockheed Martin to build an energetics campus near Austin. The facility will triple U.S. solid-rocket-motor output amid munition shortages. X-Bow’s modular “Boost” motor uses additive manufacturing to lower unit cost by 25 %.
Deal: Series B
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Defense Manufacturing
Sector: Solid-Rocket Motors
Tech: Additive Propellant Grain, Modular SRM
🔸 Cluely Raises $15 M Series A for Controversial “Cheat-On-Everything” AI
Andreessen Horowitz led a $15 million round into Cluely, whose AI whisper-prompts help users ace interviews, exams, and sales calls. Despite viral backlash, the startup says 70 % of its revenue comes from enterprise training bots that boost close-rates. Capital will fund a compliance team and an honesty-score dashboard.
Deal: Series A
Region: United States, North America
Industry: EdTech / Productivity
Sector: AI Coaching
Tech: Real-Time Whisper Prompts, LLM Safety Filters
🔸 Sword Health Raises $40 M Extension at $4 B Valuation, Adds AI Mental-Health Arm
Digital-therapeutics unicorn Sword Health secured a $40 million growth round led by General Catalyst to launch “Mind,” an always-on AI mental-health companion paired with licensed clinicians. The company plans to IPO after 2028 but says the new capital extends runway to profitability in 2026.
Deal: Growth Extension
Region: United States / Portugal
Industry: Digital Health
Sector: Musculoskeletal & Mental Health
Tech: AI Care Platform, Clinician-in-the-Loop
🔸 Shinkei Systems Bags $22 M Series A to Scale Robotic Fish Harvesting
AgfunderNews confirms Shinkei’s $22 million raise to automate the Japanese “ike jime” method at salmon farms. The robotic rig boosts shelf life by 40 % and commands premium pricing in sushi markets. Capital will build a U.S. assembly site and open a Norway subsidiary.
Deal: Series A
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Agri-Robotics
Sector: Aquaculture Processing
Tech: Computer-Vision Harvesting, Automated Ike Jime
🔸 Extend Closes $17 M Seed + Series A for Cloud Document Automation
Boston-based Extend announced a combined $17 million seed and Series A led by Innovation Endeavors and Y Combinator. Its platform auto-classifies, extracts, and routes unstructured documents with human-in-the-loop verification, reducing processing time by 85 %.
Deal: Seed + Series A
Region: United States, North America
Industry: SaaS
Sector: Document Intelligence
Tech: Hybrid LLM + Rule Engine, Human QA Loop
🔸 Supply Wisdom Raises $14 M Series B for Third-Party Risk Intelligence
New York–based Supply Wisdom landed $14 million to expand continuous monitoring of suppliers across cyber, ESG, and geopolitical dimensions. Jurassic Capital led the round, citing double-digit churn reduction among Fortune 500 clients. The startup will integrate sanctioned-entity alerts and AI-generated risk briefings.
Deal: Series B
Region: United States, North America
Industry: GRC Software
Sector: Third-Party Risk
Tech: Continuous Monitoring Graph, Gen-AI Summaries
🔸 Nabla Lands $70 M Series C for AI Copilot in Healthcare
Paris- and New York-based Nabla secured $70 million to deploy its ambient AI scribe that halves clinician documentation time. The funding supports HIPAA-compliant on-prem deployments and a cardiology-specific language model. Existing backer BPI joined new lead investor Accel.
Deal: Series C
Region: France / United States
Industry: HealthTech
Sector: Clinical AI Assistants
Tech: Ambient Scribing, Specialty LLMs
🔸 Actio Biosciences Raises $66 M Series B for Small-Molecule Precision Meds
San Diego’s Actio Biosciences closed a $66 million Series B to advance two genetically validated small-molecule programs into Phase I trials. Proceeds will also expand its AI target-deconvolution platform.
Deal: Series B
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Biopharma
Sector: Precision Medicine
Tech: Genomic Target Discovery, Small-Molecule Design
🔸 Thinking Machines Lab Raises $2 B Seed at $10 B Valuation
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, has secured $2 billion in seed capital to build AI systems that reason over multimodal data with verifiable chain-of-thought. The startup will open offices in London and Bangalore.
Deal: Seed Round
Region: United States / United Kingdom / India
Industry: Artificial Intelligence
Sector: AGI Research
Tech: Multimodal Reasoning, Verifiable CoT
🔸 Applied Intuition Closes $600 M Series F, Valued at $15 B
Autonomy-software supplier Applied Intuition raised $600 million in new capital and secondary shares, more than doubling last year’s valuation. BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round to accelerate expansion into defense and heavy-equipment verticals. The company will also co-develop perception models with OpenAI.
Deal: Series F + Tender Offer
Region: United States, North America
Industry: Autonomy Software
Sector: Multi-Domain Vehicle Simulation
Tech: Full-Stack AV Simulator, Synthetic Data
Venture Capital & Fund Activities to Watch
🔹 Analog Devices Launches $80 M ADVentures to Back Edge-Signal Processing Startups
Semiconductor firm ADI introduced ADVentures, an $80 million corporate VC unit that will invest in sensor fusion, power management, and mixed-signal ASIC companies complementing its chip portfolio. Beyond capital, ADVentures offers portfolio teams access to ADI’s test labs and global sales channels. The fund targets seed through Series B rounds with a typical $2–$5 million first check.
🔹 Sinopec Launches ¥5 B (≈$690 M) Hydrogen Venture Fund to Build China’s H₂ Chain
State-owned energy giant Sinopec has created China’s largest hydrogen-dedicated VC fund, targeting early-stage materials, equipment, and logistics technologies. Managed by Sinopec PE Fund Management, the vehicle will catalyze commercial uptake of the company’s 144 operational H₂ stations and 11 supply hubs. External partners such as Shandong New Growth Drivers Fund add regional co-investment firepower.
🔹 Hyundai Motor Group Unveils ₩125 B (≈$90 M) ZER01NE Fund III for AI & Robotics
ZER01NE Fund III expands Hyundai’s corporate-venturing platform by 50 % compared with its 2023 predecessor and pools capital from 10 group affiliates. Investment themes span autonomous robotics, cybersecurity, hydrogen, and mobility software, with a mandate for global seed-to-Series A deals. Portfolio startups can access Hyundai’s manufacturing testbeds and joint-development contracts across the group’s value chain.
🔹 Outset Ventures Collects NZ$41.5 M for Second Deep-Tech Fund in New Zealand
Auckland’s Outset Ventures closed Fund II at NZ$41.5 million (US$25.5 million), surpassing its initial goal to back hardware-heavy climate, quantum, and biotech startups. The firm plans 15 seed-stage deals and has already led two stealth investments with matched grants from Callaghan Innovation. KiwiSaver managers joined as first-time LPs seeking domestic tech exposure.
🔹 DisrupTech II Targets $70 M to Fuel AI Scale-Ups Across MENA
After deploying two-thirds of its inaugural $36 million vehicle, Cairo-based DisrupTech is raising a $70 million follow-on fund focused on financial infrastructure, ag-fintech, and conversational AI. The first fund’s 21 portfolio companies have generated $450 million in revenue and 50,000 jobs, bolstering LP appetite. DisrupTech II will write larger Series A checks and set aside capital for strategic exits beginning 2027.
🔹 C5 Capital Assembles $750 M Global Energy Security Fund for Nuclear Supply Chain
London- and D.C.-based C5 Capital is raising a $750 million growth-equity fund aimed at critical-minerals miners, reactor developers, and digital-automation providers that underpin advanced nuclear projects. Founder André Pienaar expects 10–15 portfolio companies with $25–70 million ticket sizes, co-investing alongside strategic partners. The vehicle builds on C5’s prior cybersecurity and space franchises, reflecting a broader resilience thesis.
🔹 Amplify Partners Raises Three Funds Totaling $900 M, Including First $200 M Bio Vehicle
Thirteen-year-old Amplify Partners closed $400 million for Fund 6, $300 million for a Select fund, and $200 million for “Amplify Bio,” its debut digital-biology strategy. The firm continues to back deeply technical founders in infrastructure software and AI, while the new bio fund targets computational drug discovery and lab-automation startups. Amplify’s in-house Build Team and 150-founder community remain core differentiators for portfolio scale-up.
🔹 Cathay Innovation Finalizes $1 B Fund III to Bring Vertical-AI Startups to Industry
Paris-based Cathay Innovation closed Europe’s largest AI-dedicated venture fund, uniting 20+ multinational corporates such as Sanofi and TotalEnergies with institutional LPs. Fund III focuses on “vertical AI” applications in health, fintech, consumer, and energy, writing $5–$100 million checks and already backing 14 companies on three continents. The Article 8 vehicle also offers startups partnership pathways into Cathay’s Fortune 500 ecosystem for faster industrial adoption.