Seeds surge in AI & defense; China’s launch sector lands a $336M D; Europe stacks new quantum/defense funds & more | Deep Tech Capital Movements #38
This week Deals Sector Allocation — Bio/Health 13, Energy/Climate 6, Space/Aero 4, Cyber/Defense 4, AI/Compute 3, Semis/Quantum 3, Mfg 3, Constr 3, Mob/Log 3, Materials 1, Robotics 1, Mining 1.
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:
Q4 Kickoff: Deep Tech Capital Reprices Measured Data, Brownfield Electrification, and Constrained Autonomy
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 54 Deep Tech Startup Rounds
Full Tracking of 6 Funds & Vehicles
This week at a glance:
54 items tracked: 45 startup/deal events + 9 funds/vehicles.
By sector (startups only): Biotech & Health (13) led the week, followed by Energy & Climate (6). Space & Aero and Cyber & Defense came in at 4 each; AI & Compute, Semis & Quantum, Manufacturing, Construction, and Mobility & Logistics posted 3 apiece; Materials, Robotics, and MiningTech registered 1 each.
By geography: Activity concentrated in the USA (21) and Europe incl. UK (17), with Asia Pacific at 5 and Canada and Africa at 1 each
Five deals to Watch:
Periodic Labs — $300M Seed (US): “AI scientists” + autonomous labs to generate new high-value data (early focus: superconductors).
Takeaway: huge private risk capital chasing proprietary scientific data moats.
Galactic Energy — $336M Series D (China): funds reusable Pallas-1 and next-gen solid launcher.
Takeaway:commercial launch is a capital magnet globally; reusability R&D is now table stakes.
Cerebras — $1.1B late-stage (US) and IPO on ice: keeps scaling WSE-3 while deferring public markets.
Takeaway: mega-checks for AI compute persist; private capital remains the path of least friction.
Waat — €100M Growth (FR): smart EV charging for buildings vs. highway fast charging.
Takeaway: infra is shifting to distributed, software-defined load management.
Star Therapeutics — $125M Series D (US): pivotal Phase 3 for VWD with a universal hemostatic angle.
Takeaway: late-stage life-sciences appetite is alive where timelines and payer logic are clear.
Capital Flows Snapshot:
AI & Autonomy: Capital prioritized autonomous experimentation and data-center control planes—platform layers that mint proprietary physical datasets or unlock GPU utilization—while autonomy cleared in fixed routes, BVLOS corridors, and defense CONOPS.
Compute & Energy: Efficiency was priced like a utility. Cooling, power, and storage orchestration that raises effective compute won budgeted spend; mobile microgrids emerged as on-demand electrons for sites that can’t wait on grid upgrades.
Materials & Electrification: Compatibility beat novelty. Building-level EV charging with dynamic load management, brownfield low-carbon cement tied to procurement, and process-intensified LFP aimed at pack-level cost shifts led allocations.
Defense & Security: Low-SWaP, fieldable systems outperformed moonshots—handheld SATCOM, glide/guidance retrofits, and interceptor/logistics UAVs—alongside additive energetics to de-risk supply chains.
Space & Quantum: Dual track persisted: reusable and solid-fuel launch both drew growth capital, while helium-3-free cryogenics and integrated nonlinear photonics strengthened upstream supply.
Healthcare & Bio: A barbell held: late programs with near-term clinical catalysts shared the tape with enabling tools (enzymatic DNA, digital pathology) that compress synthesis, QC, and reporting cycles; vertical clinic OS + AI continued to win when workflow ownership drove purchasing.
Industrial & Manufacturing: Inline terahertz QA and sinter-based metal AM attracted dollars on cost/throughput math; private growth remained available for differentiated compute even as IPO windows stayed selective.
Funds & Vehicles: Specialist dry powder expanded—first-check deep-tech, university spinout coverage, defense/resilience mandates, and quantum—while flexible growth pools added capacity for capital-intensive scale-ups.
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