📮 Tensor Ventures — Decoded Newsletter October 2024 Edition

Founders of Tensor Ventures — Petr Ulvr, Roman Smola and Martin Drdul.

Happy to kick off our monthly newsletter from now on! We'll be sharing updates on our new investments, portfolio startups, events, deep tech news, and more.

First things first — our Tensor Ventures Fund 2 with €50M is open and ready for fundraising! Getting ready to shake up the VC scene with quantum, techbio, AI, dev tools, the future of computing, and more.

💚 New investments

Antiverse.io

Excited to back Antiverse again as they add $4.6M to their seed funding round! The investment, led by i&i Biotech Fund I and Kadmos Capital, includes contributions from our team at Tensor Ventures and returning investors InnoSpark Ventures, UKI2S, and AngelHub. This brings their total funding to an impressive $10.1M.

Why Antiverse? They’re tackling some of the toughest targets in techbio, designing antibodies to address complex health challenges. Their work could reshape the future of medicine by reaching where traditional approaches haven’t.

Congrats to the Antiverse team! 🚀

Scalpel.ai

Happy to back Scalpel's again at their latest funding round. They've raised $4.8M, with Mercia Ventures leading and other private investors joining in.

We decided to further support Scalpel AI because they do more than fix surgical logistics. They're building a better, safer system for healthcare. Their technology helps track surgical tools and implants from storage to surgery, boosting accuracy and safety in patient care.

They've launched their vendor tray validation product to key partners, targeting expansion to:

• 5 GMLx Sites and 33 Stryker Sites, generating $4.46M ARR

• 21 Steris Sites and 5 Pure Health Sites, generating $1.74M ARR

Great work Yeshwanth & Shahnawaz! Can’t wait to taste that curry you've been teasing us with 🍛

🚀 Portfolio in action

dstack

✨ Big news from dstack, our portfolio startup reimagining AI container orchestration, is gaining significant traction across the AI industry. Positioned as an open-source alternative to Kubernetes and Slurm, dstack is building partnerships with key AI infra players, including Lambda, RunPod, Cudo Compute, and more to come.

Recently, Lambda expanded its documentation to include a tutorial on deploying Nous Research’s Hermes 3 with dstack and vLLM 👇🏼

This video is made by Lambda.

👩🏽‍💻 Deep tech scene

1. EU's Deep Tech Investment: The European Union has announced €1.4 billion in funding for the region's deep tech sector in 2024, targeting advancements in AI and other cutting-edge technologies.

2. OpenAI's Custom AI Chip Development: OpenAI is reportedly working with Broadcom and TSMC to develop custom AI chips, aiming for greater control over its supply chain and reduced reliance on Nvidia, with production expected by 2026.

3. Elon Musk's xAI Valuation and Funding: Musk’s AI startup xAI is in early talks for a new funding round that could value the company at $40 billion, building on its $24 billion valuation after a recent $6 billion raise.

💡What we read

In "Great Bioplatforms Will Always Win", NFX highlights how biotechnology platforms are redefining the startup landscape, proving yet again the immense potential for growth and innovation in techbio. This piece emphasizes how platform-based techbio startups are uniquely positioned to scale breakthroughs quickly, solidifying biotech’s role as a driving force in modern innovation.

📣 Events we loved

We took the spotlight at TechHappyHours, by Startup Kitchen and CzechInvest, diving into deep tech, vanilla tech, university tech, and the Pitch & Cheers startup competition.

Our GP Martin joined the deep tech panel alongside Linda Voeras from Karma Ventures, Lukas Hurych from Credo Ventures, and founder of Lightly Technologies Monika Stepanova to tackle what’s brewing.

Roman took the lead as the head of the jury in the Pitch & Cheers startup competition, together with Beata from Seed Starter CS and Chi Ko from Startup Island Taiwan.

Days of AI: Our team was fully plugged into Prague and Brno! Thanks to Kate, Ondrej, and Jan for hosting, presenting, and judging startups.

Ondrej & Jan got in on the networking, connecting with startups, and diving into the Polish ecosystem at the Deep Tech CEE Summit in Warsaw last week 🇵🇱

Cheers,

The Tensor VC team