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Founded by Sean O’Sullivan and based in Princeton, New Jersey, the investment firm wants to ‘reinvent the means of production’ through its latest SOSV V fund.
SOSV, the Irish-founded venture capital firm based in the US, has closed a $306m fund for deep-tech start-ups that innovate in the climate and health spaces.
Announced yesterday (16 April), the SOSV V fund is the largest ever raised by the firm founded by Cork native Sean O’Sullivan in 1995. The new fund is aimed at deep-tech start-ups with an emphasis on what it calls the “intertwined imperatives” of decarbonisation and re-industrialisation. The idea, according to SOSV, is to “reinvent the means of production”.
O’Sullivan, who is also managing general partner, said that SOSV represents the start of the journey for hundreds of deep-tech founders.
“We appreciate the dedication of many of the world’s leading family offices and corporations in backing SOSV V, enabling the creation of the most transformational climate change and human health start-ups on the planet,” he said.
“And, by partnering with later stage funds, every $100m that we invest brings another $2bn in follow-on capital into these companies. This new fund will enable an enormous amount of positive change for humanity.”
Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, SOSV said it makes around 200 investments per year, from pre-seed to Series A and later stages. It operates start-up programmes across New York, Newark and San Francisco, with about 80 start-ups graduating each year. It also has operations in Cork.
Its portfolio companies include: NotCo, an AI platform to design plant-based foods; Unspun, which makes 3D weaving tech to decarbonise fashion; Zymochem, which makes bio-based materials to decarbonise everyday products; Ten63, an AI and physics-driven drug discovery platform; and Flow Neuroscience, a depression-treating headset.
“The fight against climate-driven privation, societal disruption and loss of life is an existential fight to preserve resilience and defend abundance for all,” said Matt Ocko and Zachary Bogue, co-founders and managing partners of DCVC, an investment firm based in Palo Alto, California.
“We partner with SOSV in their decarbonisation consortium not only because they are fellow deep-tech investors, but also because they are determined like us to find every possible way to decarbonise without deprivation. SOSV V will bring power and expertise to this fight.”
Disclosure: SOSV is an investor in Silicon Republic.
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