New Space Race to Mine the Final Frontier

TECH IN THE NEWS

Startup vs Shutdown - The number of US startups shutting down is outpacing the number of new ones founded, say the Economic Innovation Group.

"Makes No Sense" - Sen Scott Wiener criticizes OpenAI’s “tired” argument that California’s AI bill would stifle innovation and push talent out of the state.

No We Don’t - Chinese autonomous vehicle startup WeRide has delayed its planned US IPO at a $5b valuation, will need to reapply for approval.

“Large-Scale Theft” - A group of authors filed a lawsuit against leading AI startup Anthropic, alleging the company trained its Claude chatbot on pirated copies of copyrighted books.

Crypto - 1. Top stablecoin provider Tether plans to launch a token pegged to the UAE's dirham. | 2. Custody giant State Street expands crypto services in new partnership with Swiss crypto firm Taurus.

🚨 PS: INVESTORS

We’ve got some fresh open deals (marked 🔥). Check them out below, and reach out to [email protected] for more info or for an intro. 🤝 

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THE HOTTEST THING IN TECH
The New Space Race to Mine the Final Frontier

It doesn’t get more “moonshot” than the quest to mine the vast resources of space. With dwindling planetary resources and ecological concerns, space mining is fast emerging as a frontier industry with immense potential. The global space tech sector is projected to be worth $1T by 2030, with mining, as the most likely commercialization option, likely making up a large %.

California startup AstroForge is stepping up to the task this week with a $40M Series A raise led by Nova Threshold, with Alexis Ohanian’s 776, Initialized, Caladan, YC, and Uncorrelated joining in. AstroForge aims to mine asteroids for rare metals at a lower financial and ecological cost than terrestrial mining, preparing a custom craft for its upcoming third mission.

Another leader in the field is Interlune, founded by former Blue Origin execs to extract the rare and valuable helium-3 isotope from the Moon. It raised $15M in March led by 776. Helium-3 is the only resource viable to mine on the Moon currently, with an immediate market in nuclear fusion and many believe it could revolutionize energy and medical technologies.

Picks and Shovels

The path to space mining is full of challenges. Transportation, extraction, and processing are all big problems to solve. Companies like TransAstra (optical mining and solar-powered spacecraft) and OffWorld (robotic mining) are developing groundbreaking tech for extraction and processing in orbit. Space giants like Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin are contributing to the transport and infrastructure (and clipping the ticket of course!!)

The Re-Entry Moonshot

Speaking of moonshots, how’s this one from China? A study published this week proposed a magnetic “slingshot” launch system on the Moon to fling cargo capsules back to Earth using the Moon’s low gravity and escape velocity. The primary goal? Unsurprisingly, to transport helium-3...

So, the race is on to develop lunar resources is leading to a new geopolitical space race between the US and China. The Artemis Accords governing the demilitarization of space are being stretched to the extreme already in the cold war climate. More collaboration could avoid conflict, but as we’ve covered before, space defense is another growth sector, so don’t bet on it.

Investor Takeaways

Visionary VCs are actively funding in this area. There’s Ohanian’s 776, and Space.VC which has a dedicated $20M Fund for frontier tech. Seraphim Space is also active. It’s also a hybrid investment sector, with much money coming from government grants and industry giants like Musk or Bezos.

Potential investors should be aware of some important points:

• Mining is a nascent sector with early-stage opps and major upside.

• Tech innovation, regulatory and geopolitical factors will shape the future and determine risk profile for any given investment so DYOR.

• It’s likely a longer term ROI horizon, not an overnight boom.

FOR INVESTORS
Open Deals

Request an intro to founders - [email protected]

1. 🔥 Robotics for Agricultural Efficiency - Pittsburgh - Built & deployed robotic hardware for the largest U.S. tree nurseries, reducing costs and increasing efficiency by 50x. Hardware and AI data layer. Beginning to scale globally. Post-revenue, at capacity. (Seed+)
   

2. 🔥 Quant Trading Software Company - New Jersey - Large-scale automated day-trading algorithm designed for volatile U.S. equity markets. Profitable through extensive backtesting and live simulation. Seeking equity investment for software company.

3. Cricket for the Modern World - India - Physical and virtual ecosystem fostering cricket experiences for enthusiasts and upcoming pros. Data-driven, locally proven, globally scaling. (Seed)

4. ⏱️ AI Agent Employees - New York - Sophisticated workflow automation for businesses towards fully autonomous organizations. Previously-exited founder. Backed by Tribe & Kenetic. (Seed)

5. Outbound B2B Campaign AI Co-Pilot - Lexington, MA - Turn any CRM into an AI optimized sales agent for personalized customer campaigns. Founder previous exit to PE. Notable Angel on board. Top Hubspot App. Post revenue. (Seed)

6. Therapy for Baldness - Los Angeles, CA - Developed by ex-Kythera R&D Leader. Virtual development model and world class team seeking to fund POC study. (Seed)

🔥 — hot deal!
⏱️ — leaving soon.

FOR EMPLOYERS
Job Candidates

Request an intro to candidates - [email protected].

1. Struck Capital Venture Associate, ex-West2East (Russell Wilson) Director of Special Projects, ex-Phoenix Holdings Investment Associate. Harvard BA. Vietnamese pro basketball player.

2. Lockheed Martin Software Engineer, ex-Rutgers Junior Full Stack Developer. Secret clearance. Expertise in C++, PHP, SQL. Rutgers BA in Computer Science.

TRENDING TOOLS AND BUZZY TECH
Tools

OpenAI - Free GPT-4o fine-tuning (up to 1M tpd) to customize the model.

McAfee - Deepfake Detector tool in Lenovo's New Copilot+ PCs.

Ideogram - V 2.0 text-to-image model, iOS app, beta API, 1b+ images.

Groq - API for faster, cheaper version of OpenAI’s Whisper text-to-speech.

Tech

Neuralink - 2nd patient is able to use design software, threads intact.

Recogni - Novel “Pareto” computing method slashes AI Chip costs, power. 

Neural AI Model - ‘bridging gap’ b/t power-hungry AI + human brain.

DEALS WE’RE WATCHING
Closed Deals:

O-S Software for IT Infra Monitoring - New York startup Grafana Labs raised $270M through a primary and secondary transaction led by previous investor Lightspeed at a valuation of $6b+ (up 2x since 2021.)

API Design + MGMT Tools - San Francisco company Kong has raised $80M of a possible $100M round. Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, and Index Ventures are among its previous investors.

Deals & Companies to Watch:

State Street - The Boston-based custody and financial services giant, has tapped Swiss crypto startup Taurus as a tech vendor for its digital assets services.

Bolt - Founder Ryan Breslow is returning as CEO to the embattled e-commerce startup, as the company finalizes a $450M Series F round at a $14b valuation aiming to transition to “an everything app”.

Funding Buzz Watch:

California x Google - The state government and Google announced a $300M, 5-year partnership to fund in-state newsrooms and AI initiatives, including a $40M annual “AI Innovation Accelerator”.