AI Chatbots, Ex-SpaceX Scientist Making Vegan Cheeses, and MIT OCW - Issue #2
Also, is disruptive progress in Science slowing down? Nature and Vox certainly think so
Welcome to the second issue of DTVC, a publication dedicated to sharing information related to deep technology investments, deals, headlines, reports, and much more. Deep technology is where engineering meets scientific discoveries. Here’s a brief voice memo from me detailing this week’s issue:
What are you waiting for? Hurry up now and scroll down to see what’s in store this week.
The BFD: Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach (NYT)
Excerpt taken directly from article mentioned above. All credit goes to the NYT and the article’s author, Kalley Huang (@KalleyHuang on Twitter)
While grading essays for his world religions course last month, Antony Aumann, a professor of philosophy at Northern Michigan University, read what he said was easily “the best paper in the class.” It explored the morality of burqa bans with clean paragraphs, fitting examples and rigorous arguments.
A red flag instantly went up.
Aumann confronted his student over whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to using ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences — and, in this case, had written the paper.
Alarmed by his discovery, Aumann decided to transform essay writing for his courses this semester. He plans to require students to write first drafts in the classroom, using browsers that monitor and restrict computer activity. In later drafts, students have to explain each revision. Aumann, who may forgo essays in subsequent semesters, also plans to weave ChatGPT into lessons by asking students to evaluate the chatbot’s responses.
“What’s happening in class is no longer going to be, ‘Here are some questions — let’s talk about it between us human beings,’” he said, but instead “it’s like, ‘What also does this alien robot think?’”
But Wait… Could GPTZero Be A Solution Before ChatGPT Fundamentally Changes Writing? (NPR)
Excerpt taken directly from article mentioned above. All credit goes to the NPR and the article’s author, Greg Rosalsky (@elliswonk on Twitter)
While many Americans were nursing hangovers on New Year's Day, 22-year-old Edward Tian was working feverishly on a new app to combat misuse of a powerful, new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT…
Edward is a senior at Princeton University, where he majors in computer science and minors in journalism. Before his recent foray into the limelight, Edward's biggest plans were graduating college and getting his wisdom teeth pulled. Now he's fielding calls from venture capital firms, education leaders, and global media outlets.
Over the last couple years, Edward has been studying an AI system called GPT-3, a predecessor to ChatGPT that was less user-friendly and largely inaccessible to the general public because it was behind a paywall. As part of his studies this fall semester, Edward researched how to detect text written by the AI system while working at Princeton's Natural Language Processing Lab.
Deals of the Week (January 8 - 17, 2023)
Source: Startupdaily., NSW launches $7mm quantum computing commercialization fund
Venture Fundings
Bloomfield Robotics, an AgTech company based in Lawrenceville, GA, landed $4.4mm in financing to aid the company’s growth in the specialty crop industry. Kubota Corp., an Osaka, Japan-based agricultural machine company, and Oeneo Group, a Bordeax, France-based wine producer, led the round.
CHOOSE, a Norway-based climate tech company that delivers a software platform enabling enterprises to integrate climate action into their customer experiences, raised $15mm from GenZero, SOUNDWaves, Shell Ventures, Vinyl Capital, among others.
PneumoWave, a Glasgow, Scotland-based health-tech startup, secured a $9.15mm Series A investment for its wearable biosensor. The wearable monitors the lungs to provide remote diagnostics for carers and medical services. The organization plans to boost its team from 18 to ~35, some of which will be based in the US. More info here.
SpiderOak, a Lenexa, Kansas-based cybersecurity company developing zero-trust solutions for civil, military, and commercial space operations, received $16.4mm in a Series C round led by Empyrean Technology Solutions, a space technology platform backed by funds affiliated with Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.
DeepL, a German-based firm founded in 2009 operating in the machine translation space, has become the EU’s latest AI unicorn. The sector seems to be heating up… More coverage here.
ReelData, an AI-startup providing customized data and automation to land-based farmers, raised $8mm to develop a precise and autonomous operating system to unlock the future of land-based aquaculture and the sustainability advancements it promises. The round was led by S2G Ventures, The Nest Family Office, and Buoyant Ventures. Learn more about the company here.
Inflow, a London-headquartered Y Combinator graduate, raised $11mm to deliver digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) exercises for managing ADHD. Octopus Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, and Route 66 Ventures, participated in the latest round.
Interstellar Technologies, a Hokkaido, Japan-based, space technology startup closed a $30mm Series D financing. The ZERO rocket, the company’s next bet within the realm of providing low-cost space transportation services, is currently in full-fledged development and will launch later this year. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, numerous nations have been unable to use Russian rockets, which used to account for 20% of the world’s space transportation. Interstellar Technologies intends to fill in the gap. More info here.
Oxbotica, a developer of autonomous vehicle software, raised a $140mm Series C to deploy its operating system for Universal Autonomy™ in multiple commercial and industrial domains around the world. The Oxford, UK-based company has raised approximately $225mm to date. Read their press release here.
Nextpoint Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based firm, closed an $80mm series B round to target novel immune checkpoint. The company intends to plant a flag in an area of immune signaling that has been largely overlooked by drug developers until now.
Monogram Health, a value-based specialty provider of in-home evidence-based care and benefit management services for patients living with polychronic conditions, including chronic kidney and end-stage renal disease, closed on $375mm of new funding. The Series C round backers of the Brentwood, TN-based healthcare company included CVS Health, Cigna Ventures, TPG Capital, Humana, among others
Enpal, a Berlin, Germany-based photovoltaic leasing startup, secured $230mm+ in a Series D round led by TGP Capital’s Rise Climate fund. The company says the funds will enable it to develop new products, expand into new markets, and develop its intelligent energy platform. Founded in 2017 by Mario Kohle, Jochen Ziervoge, and Viktor Wingert, Enpal wants to make green energy accessible by offering photovoltaic systems, home storage, and charging solutions through a rental programme.
Chronosphere, a NYC, NY-based organization building scalable, reliable, and customizable monitoring solutions for cloudp-native applications, raised another $115mm at a $1.6bn valuation. TechCrunch has more info here.
Oxford Ionics, a quantum computing startup based in Oxford, UK, raised a $36.5mm Series A round led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Braavos Investment Advisors. Founded in 2019, Oxford Ionics’ trapped-ion technology holds world records for the highest performance quantum operations, longest quantum coherence time, and highest performance quantum network. Importantly, the company has shown that it can maintain this performance using chips manufactured on a semiconductor production line.
Other Fundings
Mumbai Oncocare Centre, an India-based chain of cancer daycare centers, raised a $10mm Series A from Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, the healthcare-focused arm of private equity firm Tata Capital ltd. More info here.
Inbenta, a Dallas, TX-based provider of a conversational AI platform, raised $40mm in funding led by Tritium Partners, a private equity firm focused on marketplaces. The company intends to use the capital to fund product development and international expansion into new markets.
Exits and New Funds
German-based biotech company, BionNTech, highly-regarded for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, buys UK AI start-up InstaDeep in $685mm deal. The firm’s goal with the acquisition is to integrate AI seamlessly in various aspects of daily operations ranging from target discovery to delivery of final products. The Financial Times has more here.
Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) Government launched a $7mm quantum computing commercialization fund and is accepting applications over the course of the next two weeks. Grants of between $200K and $4mm are available for projects involving quantum computing hardware and/or software in NSW. Learn more from the startupdaily. here.
Talk about a *literal exit*. Two co-founders of Adept, Niki Parmar and Ashish Vaswani, suddenly left to start another company without further explanation about their respective departure. The two prominent AI researchers left Google in 2021 to launch Adept, an OpenAI rival. They leave the business less than a year after it emerged from stealth. The Information has the details here.
Tomas Tunguz, a venture capitalist who recently left Redpoint Ventures, is looking to raise $200mm for his new firm, Theory Ventures, which he registered in California in September. The cloud-software investor will focus on investing in enterprise-software startups at the seed and series A stages. Continue reading here.
News Headlines
Letter: Don’t let UK breakthrough technologies gather dust (FT)
SpaceX Scientist Uses Deep Tech to Make “Moonshot” Vegan Cheeses (VegNews) - Yay or Nay?
University of Bristol (UK) partners with Genie AI to provide free legal contracts for budding entrepreneurs (University of Bristol)
The next generation of evidence-based medicine (Nature Medicine)
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) discusses and proposes deeper cooperation with India (India’s Ministry of Science & Technology)
Generative AI is having a moment and governments needs to pay attention (The Mandarin)
War in Europe Draws Investors to Drone, Battlefield AI Makers (Bloomberg)
Microsoft’s $10bn bet on ChatGPT developer marks new era of AI (FT)
Computers that power self-driving cars could be a huge driver of global carbon emissions (MIT News)
Additional Reading
Research Article: Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time (Nature)
Research Article: Can Europe Create Its Own Deep-Tech Giants? (BCG)
News: Enabling advanced studies in Turkey with MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT News) - Absolute Trailblazers.
News: Why is Science Slowing Down? (Vox)
Predictions: 6 experts at Davos share what’s on the horizon for 2023 (World Economic Forum)
Must-Watch Video
Source: MIT VCPE; Interview with Shaun Maguire (Sequoia Capital)
Source: MIT VCPE; Interview with Josh Wolfe (Lux Capital)
Book Recommendation
Support your local bookstore or consider purchasing from Amazon here.