From GPUs to grid: efficiency layers fundraise big; autonomy goes field-ready; RNA & clinical keep pace | Deep Tech Capital Movements #39

This week Deals Sector Allocation — AI/Compute 8; Energy & Grid 7; Cyber/Defense 7; Bio 6; Materials 4; Semis/Quantum 3; Aga & Food 3; Mobility 3; Space/Aero 2; Robots, Mining & Construction 1 each.

Welcome back to Deep Tech Capital Movements — A global read on where the money actually went in Deep Tech private markets.

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Inside This Week’s Deep Tech Capital Movements:

Lite Edition (Free)

• This week at a glance

• Five Deals to Watch (why they matter)

• Capital Flows Snapshot

Full Edition (Premium)

• Weekly analysis:

  • WEEK 41, 2025 - Distributed Power, Open-Weight AI, and GPS-Denied Autonomy Lead

  • How Capital Actually Deployed This Week

  • Funds & Vehicles Check

  • Geography Check

  • Five Signals That Stood Out

  • Ten Lessons That Surfaced

  • Bottom Line

• Full Tracking of 46 Deep Tech Startup Rounds

• Full Tracking of 13 Funds & Vehicles

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This week at a glance:

• 59 items tracked: 46 startup/deal events + 13 funds/vehicles.

• By sector (startups only): Energy & Climate (9) and AI & Compute (7) led; Biotech & Health (7) and Cyber & Defense (6) followed; Semis & Quantum, AgTech & Food Systems, Mobility & Logistics, Materials, and Space & Aero posted 3 each; Industrial & Manufacturing and Construction logged 1 apiece.

• By geography: Activity balanced between the USA (20) and Europe incl. UK (16), with Asia–Pacific (5), Middle East (2), Canada (2) and Africa (1).

Five deals to Watch:

1. Base Power — $1B Series C (US): aggregating home batteries into grid services (ADER) while building a domestic factory for storage + power electronics.
   Takeaway: distributed, software-orchestrated storage is graduating to national-scale virtual power plants.

2. Asterix Foods — $4.2M Seed (IL): plant-cell platforms to produce complex dairy/egg proteins—native glycosylation without precision-fermentation cost stacks.
   Takeaway: a lower-capex path to bioactive proteins could unlock the “second wave” of alt-ingredients.

3. Electroflow Technologies — $10M Seed (US): electrochemical DLE that converts brines straight to LFP-grade material.
   Takeaway: integrated brine-to-LFP flows promise cost and footprint wins—and tighter domestic battery supply chains.

4. Möbius Industries — $3.8M Pre-Seed (US/UK): AI- and robotics-driven “de-manufacturing” to recover high-purity metals/plastics from end-of-life products.
   Takeaway: urban mining is maturing from pilot to automated plants—circular inputs as a reliability hedge.

5. FirstQFM — €1.2M Pre-Seed (SE): AI foundation models that tune NISQ-era quantum hardware for real performance gains.
   Takeaway: “model-first” quantum is a capex-light wedge to useful quantum before fault tolerance arrives.

Capital Flows Snapshot:

• Compute & AI: Big checks flowed to the pipes and platforms behind AI—training/inference hardware, AI-native dev stacks, and the “plumbing” that keeps GPUs busy (faster storage and networking). RL-driven cooling and plant controls won budgeted spend by cutting energy use. Open-weight frontier labs attracted multi-billion funding as credible alternatives to closed ecosystems.

• Energy, Storage & Grid: Residential virtual power plants scaled with billion-dollar growth rounds; community batteries tapped large revolving credit; marine storage advanced. Early bets landed in wave-energy harvesters and solid-electrolyte components. Materials strategies focused on supply security—direct-to-cathode lithium and bio-based extraction of critical minerals.

• Defense, Autonomy & ISR: Capital favored fieldable, low-SWaP systems over speculative moonshots—tethered aerial surveillance, BVLOS industrial inspection, and maritime autonomy. Low-cost precision-strike kits designed for GPS-denied environments gained traction, and demand for tactical FPV optics stayed strong.

• Space & Aero: Reusable launch moved from R&D to factory build-out, while dual-use advanced air mobility progressed toward full-scale flight testing and near-term logistics corridors.

• Biotech & Health: The barbell held: sizable financings for clinical programs in respiratory/inflammation and RNA on one end, and enabling platforms—neuroimmune targets, smartphone biomarkers, and AI that accelerates regulatory workflows—on the other.

• Semis & Quantum: Investors backed practical performance now: reconfigurable many-core chips, helium-3-free cryogenics that stabilize supply chains, and AI-assisted calibration to squeeze more from today’s NISQ-era hardware.

• Materials, Circularity & Adaptation: Automated “de-manufacturing” for high-purity recovery, high-temperature composites for harsh environments, and wearable cooling gels advanced on clear cost, safety, and heat-stress wins.

• Mobility, Logistics & Infra: Software-led gains dominated—fleet telematics in under-served markets, AI-driven orchestration of vehicle moves, and safer micro light-delivery vehicles promising better throughput with lower incident risk.

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WEEK 41, 2025

Distributed Power, Open-Weight AI, and GPS-Denied Autonomy Lead