Deep Tech Opportunities Report 2023 (DCVC (Data Collective))

Summary

• DCVC manages over $3 billion in committed capital across 12 funds targeting deep tech opportunities.p.5
• In January 2023 alone, 218,000 people in the U.S. quit their jobs in the transportation, warehousing, and utilities sector, leaving 628,000 jobs open.p.9
• Of the $40 billion investors put into climate tech in 2021, only $400 million went toward water technology.p.20
• Building a bioreactor facility large enough to produce 10,000 metric tons of cultured meat per year would cost $450 million.p.42
• The count of licensed commercial launches has increased dramatically since 2017, when SpaceX launched 18 Falcon 9 rockets into space.p.44
• Capturing 100 gigatons of CO₂ at a cost of $100 per ton would cost $10 trillion, which is more than a tenth of global GDP.p.27

Key insights

1. Zap Energy fed 500 kiloamps (kA) of current through a plasma for the first time, coming within 150 kA of scientific energy breakeven (Q=1).p.4
2. Aclarity's electro-oxidation solution reduced PFAS levels in landfill leachate from over 1,000 nanograms per liter to less than 10 nanograms per liter using low energy.p.21
3. If power entering the U.S. energy grid from nuclear plants had come from fossil fuel plants instead, CO₂ emissions would have been 500 to 750 megatons higher each year since 1995.p.26
4. GPT-3's pre-training dataset was 10 times as large as that used by the second-biggest model at the time of its release.p.15
5. Pivot Bio developed natural soil additives that allow farmers to reduce synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use on crops by 30 percent with no drop in yields.p.40
6. Replacing all U.S. meat production with cellular agriculture would require building 4,500 factories at a total cost exceeding $2 trillion.p.42
7. Producing fine mycelium leather alternatives generates 8 percent as much carbon per square meter as leather from cattle.p.41