The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Dunia combines novel science-based AI algorithms with a proprietary self-driving lab and chemical-robotic workflows to accelerate discovery of advanced materials. The platform leverages quantum chemistry-derived material representations and proprietary in-house datasets to give its ML systems an edge over black-box approaches. Dunia focuses on power-to-x electrocatalysts for green hydrogen and ammonia generation and on converting CO2 into higher-value chemical products, targeting key bottlenecks in the energy transition. The company says its self-driving lab can shorten conventional decades-long innovation cycles to under three years and has validated its approach in a proof-of-concept electrocatalyst ink formulation that outperformed human researchers. Founded in 2022 and based in Berlin, Dunia has received grants from IBB and the EIC Accelerator and been recognised by programs such as NZTC’s TechX Clean Energy Accelerator and RMI’s Third Derivative Accelerator. The founding team comprises scientists and engineers with deep expertise in chemistry, machine learning and robotics and is supported by industry and scientific angels, with Dr Carlos Haertel serving as chairman of the company board.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Dunia Innovations combines novel science-based AI algorithms with a proprietary self-driving lab to massively accelerate discovery of advanced materials. The platform targets power-to-x electrocatalysts for green hydrogen and ammonia generation and the conversion of CO2 into higher-value chemical products. Its technology aims to address key barriers to the global energy transition by speeding materials discovery for low-carbon fuels and chemicals. Founded in 2022 and led by Dr. Alexander Hammer, the founding team comprises scientists and engineers with deep expertise in chemistry, machine learning, and robotics. The company has received grants from IBB and the EIC Accelerator and recognition from programs including NZTC’s TechX Clean Energy Accelerator, the Henry Royce Institute, and RMI’s Third Derivative Accelerator. Dunia intends to use the $11.5M raised to expand operations and further develop its platform.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2024

Applied Carbon makes a tractor‑pulled farm implement that converts crop residue into biochar on‑site using a pyrolyzer that produces biochar and syngas to power the machine. The implement is fed by a harvester, chops and dries residue, pyrolyzes it, quenches the biochar, and spreads and mixes it into the soil. The current design is optimized for corn but can handle rice, wheat, straw, sorghum, and sugarcane; it covers roughly an acre per hour and requires a heavy tractor. The company has produced five prototypes over four years and raised $21.5 million in a recent Series A to move from prototype to early production of its pyrolyzer. Applied Carbon is building machines in Houston and plans deployments in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and has already sold carbon offsets created by its process to companies including Microsoft. In the longer term it plans to lease or sell equipment to farmers and help them monetize carbon credits rather than operate a fleet.

Led · Seed · Jul 2024

Marathon Fusion is developing high-throughput tritium extraction and hydrogen purification systems based on superpermeation to enable fuel supply for commercial fusion reactors. The startup is refining a 40-year-old superpermeation technique that uses a metal membrane and a plasma-stage process to allow hydrogen (including tritium) to pass while blocking impurities and compressing the gas for injection. Marathon’s goal is to increase filtration throughput by, in the company’s words, "a few orders of magnitude" to meet continuous commercial reactor needs versus current experimental equipment. The company has operated stealthily and received early support from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program and the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program. Marathon recently raised a $5.9 million seed round led by the 1517 Fund and Anglo American, with participation from Übermorgen Ventures, Shared Future Fund and Malcolm Handley. It also holds letters of intent from Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion Energy to potentially supply fuel-processing systems as fusion deployment scales.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

Thea Energy builds pixel-inspired rectangular magnets and software to generate and fine-tune stellarator magnetic fields, using many smaller planar coils to shape plasma confinement. The company says its approach lets software control arrays of regular magnets to create complex stellarator fields, and it has built dozens of full-scale magnet iterations in its Jersey City lab. Thea originally spun out of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and has iterated its design to include a set of larger magnets alongside more than 300 smaller coils that fine-tune the plasma. With $130 million in total private funding after the new Series B, Thea is scaling magnet manufacturing and plans to begin construction of its Eos demonstration reactor next year. The company aims to complete Eos by 2030 and bring a commercial device, Helios, online in 2034.