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Articles by James Hardiman
TypeSafe emerges from stealth with a new way of doing AI
There is a basic weakness at the heart of today’s AI. Products from the big players produce dazzling displays as they try to leapfrog each other on LLM leaderboards, and yet these systems are riddled with holes and problems with reliability. Most disappointingly, the hand-holding required on even the most boring and straightforward tasks is non-negotiable, meaning the kind of no-humans-in-the-loop automation we keep expecting to see sweep through the economy just hasn’t shown up yet.
ShennonBio, a pioneer in precision cancer therapies, enters next phase of growth with a new CEO and fresh capital
We’re excited to be part of a new $12 million financing round for Shennon Biotechnologies, whose ultra-high-throughput functional screening technology can sort through over 10 million T cell-target cell pairs in one experiment to see which T cells can best recognize and destroy tumor cells.
Fourth Power commissions demo system poised to set world record
Fourth Power CEO Arvin Ganesan at today's commissioning event Fourth Power — which takes electricity, stores it as heat for hours to days, and provides it back as electricity — just commissioned a demonstration system for its technology. That’s great news. Hospitals, homes, data centers, EVs, and industrial facilities need affordable, reliable, clean electricity.
DCVC joins $ 100 million seed round to power Callosum, builder of a new orchestration layer for heterogeneous AI
From my work with DCVC-backed TechBio companies such as Kanvas, Noetik, Proxima, and Relation, I know that frontier AI models are rapidly helping us to understand complex biological networks and unlock cures for diseases we thought were untreatable. When we started working with Proxima in August 2025, they were doing three thousand in silico experiments per run, designed to generate new small-molecule ligands that connect existing proteins in the body and give them unprecedented powers.
Relation defines the TechBio sector with AI models transforming drug discovery
Despite the last decade’s progress toward understanding diseases, one stubborn problem persists. While technology now enables the measurement of cellular responses to different interventions, the matrix of possible interventions across proteins, contexts, and tissues is experimentally intractable. That makes biotech R&D and even clinical testing a risky, costly process of trial and error, with failure as the norm.
DCVC publishes the 2026 Deep Tech Opportunities report: “ Back to Fundamentals in an Age of Exponential Change”
Geopolitical unrest; fragile supply chains; water shortages; aging and brittle infrastructure; runaway healthcare costs; labor shortages in skilled technical roles; the scramble to find electricity for data centers; climate instability. When you add all these forces together, they make for a volatile economy where planning for the future is a challenge.
DCVC 2026 Q 2 update
DCVC Deep Tech Week Salon, featuring a panel discussion with Zack Bogue, Naveen Rao (Co-Founder & CEO, Unconventional AI), and Nicholas Flanders (Co-Founder & CEO, Twelve). Friends of DCVC, It was a big quarter for DCVC.
James Walter Hardiman, 89, of Westborough Westborough
Born in Boston, James was the son of the late Walter Hardiman and Constance (Woolhouse) Morse. He was raised and educated in Worcester and graduated from Central New England College. James enjoyed a successful career as an electrical engineer with Warren Communications in Littleton, where he worked until his retirement. A proud veteran, James served in the United States Navy during the late 1950s aboard the USS Marshall. His military service remained a source of pride throughout his life.
James Walter Hardiman, 89, of Westborough Westborough
Born in Boston, James was the son of the late Walter Hardiman and Constance (Woolhouse) Morse. He was raised and educated in Worcester and graduated from Central New England College. James enjoyed a successful career as an electrical engineer with Warren Communications in Littleton before retiring. Throughout his professional life, he was known for his dedication, knowledge, and strong work ethic. A proud veteran, James served in the United States Navy during the late 1950s aboard the USS Marshall.
Kanvas makes the microbiome druggable — and the implications are massive
Ever since the genomics revolution revealed how reliant the human organism is on its microscopic microbial cohabitants, the microbiome has been medicine’s most elusive frontier, promising better health if only we could untangle the trillions of interactions that influence nearly every facet of our physiology. But until now, effective medicines that harness the microbiome have been rare.
DCVC 2026 Q 1 update
Friends of DCVC, Our portfolio companies had a busy quarter attracting major new funding (about $2 billion in aggregate), securing key commercial partnerships, and scaling fundamental technologies needed to accelerate AI, defense, energy, quantum, agriculture, medicine, and more. Behind each piece of news below is dazzling technology spun from a flywheel of proprietary data, deep compute, and insight derived from a given product’s contact with the real world.
Deep Tech Opportunity: TechBio companies are using data to rethink…
Last year’s edition of the DCVC Deep Tech Opportunities Report, released in June 2025, explains the global challenges we see as the most critical and the possible solutions we hope to advance through our investing. This is a condensed and updated version of the report’s fifth chapter.
Proxima raises $80M in seed financing, led by DCVC, to reprogram…
Proteins, carriers of the signals that can spark or stop cellular functions, seldom work alone — they’re found in complexes with other proteins. Among drug hunters there’s been a growing hope that if we could understand, control, and disrupt how proteins lock together, it might give us new ways to slow difficult-to-treat diseases like cancer or autoimmune disorders.
Noetik’s partnership with GSK puts dollar signs on the AI licensing…
Of all the TechBio companies in DCVC’s portfolio, Noetik may have the business model that leans into AI the hardest. It doesn’t yet have its own pipeline of drugs in development. Its initial focus has been entirely on building world models for biology—large generative models that can simulate patients’ cells and make predictions that inform patient treatment and support the development of new cancer therapies.
DCVC DTOR 2025: America needs exponentially greater computing power,…
The 2025 edition of the DCVC Deep Tech Opportunities Report, released in June, explains the global challenges we see as the most critical and the possible solutions we hope to advance through our investing. This is a condensed version of the report’s second chapter.
Fulfil’s robot revolution comes to Whole Foods
In a Philadelphia suburb, the future of online grocery just went live. DCVC portfolio company Fulfil has deployed its fully autonomous micro-fulfillment technology at a Whole Foods Market location, marking a watershed moment for both grocery automation and customer experience. The timing couldn’t be better. U.S. online grocery sales now total about $120 billion annually and are expected to keep growing through 2028—three times faster than in-store sales. Yet profitability remains elusive.
DCVC DTOR 25: Deep tech will solidify the United States’ advantage as…
The stockpiling of goods like appliances and clothing is what enables the cornucopia of instant choice to which we’ve become accustomed in the internet era. But in aggregate, an enormous amount of energy and raw materials — in the form of cloth, plastic, metal, motors, circuit boards, and the like — is locked up in these goods. What if there were a lower-impact way to provide the same flexibility?
DCVC DTOR 2025: Introduction
In terms of the value added to global GDP by its manufacturing sector — that is, the value of outputs, minus the cost of inputs — the U.S. ranks second in the world, surpassed only by China. “People don’t realize that the United States is, in fact, a leader in manufacturing,” says Zachary Bogue, co-founder and managing partner at DCVC.
How Fortem is helping the U.S. and its allies get ahead of the drone…
In the month since waves of rogue drones violated the airspace of Poland, Denmark, and other European nations, the defense calculus in NATO capitals has changed. What once felt hypothetical now feels urgent. That urgency is showing up in real-world procurement. In Q3, DCVC-backed Fortem Technologies received purchase orders for a dozen of its counter-UAS (CUAS) systems from U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East – roughly double the volume from the same period a year ago.
Tariff Pricing Under Pressure: Avoiding Antitrust Liability
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Reality Defender democratizes deepfake detection with public API…
The democratization of artificial intelligence has been a double-edged sword. While generative AI tools have unleashed unprecedented creative and productivity possibilities, they’ve also armed bad actors with sophisticated deception capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of state-sponsored actors and well-funded criminal organizations.
Professor Prineha Narang joins DCVC as we double down on our…
We have been investing in quantum companies for more than 20 years, with multiple public companies and industry sector leaders under our belt. Matt’s investment in public quantum computing pioneer D‑Wave Systems precedes DCVC itself, so it has been natural for us to take the long view as scientists and entrepreneurs seek to harness quantum effects to solve important, fundamental problems that are impossible to solve using classical approaches.
Reality Defender answers FINRA call
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a self-regulatory organization that exists to make and enforce rules for brokerage and other financial services firms, including measures to deter fraud.
Lumafield raises $75 million to give manufacturers a look deep inside…
Superheroes are a tired trope in the tech industry, but some companies we invest in really are developing superpowers. Lumafield is bringing affordable and practical Computed Tomography (CT) technology — real-life x‑ray spex for engineers — to the factory floor, offering industrial decision-makers a high-resolution, non-destructive, and highly valuable way to see inside their products during prototyping and when they eventually roll off their lines.
In a deep-tech twofer, Brimstone aims to secure U.S. aluminum supply
Alumina is the precursor to aluminum, a material essential to energy, defense, transportation, and manufacturing. Yet the U.S. remains heavily dependent on imports of alumina, primarily from China, as well as on bauxite, the primary source of alumina. Having already developed the world’s first zero-carbon portland cement, DCVC portfolio company Brimstone has devised a way to produce smelter-grade alumina without relying on bauxite.
DCVC DTOR 2024: New storage and generation technologies will make the…
The 2024 edition of the DCVC Deep Tech Opportunities Report explains the guiding principles behind our investing and how our portfolio companies contribute to deep tech’s counteroffensive against climate change, disease, and the other threats to prosperity, longevity, and abundance. The third chapter of the report focuses on energy and is divided into three sections; this is the first.
CH4 Global opens the world's first commercial-scale Asparagopsis…
When DCVC first invested in CH4 Global only four years ago, we saw something revolutionary: a company that had developed a practical, scalable solution to one of the most acute causes of climate change — the methane-laced burps from cattle that account for roughly a third of all anthropogenic methane emissions.
DCVC announces incubation of Circularity Fuels
Tomorrow’s best ideas are often today’s best ideas inverted. The Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around; genes propagate through natural selection, not through acquired traits; time is relative, not absolute. In that vein, DCVC is proud to announce its incubation of Circularity Fuels, a company built around its own inversion — of the rocket engine.
DCVC DTOR 2024: Artificial general intelligence can be as distracting…
“A system that is generally capable” is the definition of artificial general intelligence offered by Demis Hassabis, leader of Google’s DeepMind division.
Proprio's Physical AI at the 2025 JPM Healthcare Conference
At CES this week, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, highlighted Physical AI as the next frontier in the AI revolution. While much of his focus was on autonomous driving and general-purpose robotics — showcasing DCVC portfolio company Agility Robotics and their groundbreaking humanoid robot, Digit — other critical applications of Physical AI are emerging. One of the most transformative areas is healthcare, particularly surgery.
Alta debuts with $5.1 million Seed to sustainably separate critical…
Like energy, food, and water, mined metals are essential inputs for nearly every aspect of modern life. From the rare earth elements that power electric vehicles and consumer electronics to the magnesium that is vital for lightweighting transportation, we depend heavily on the products of mining. But as global demand for these materials skyrockets, the U.S. faces a serious supply crunch. We remain highly reliant on imports, and shortages loom if we fail to act.
DCVC DTOR 2024: With quantum computing, we invest in the picks and…
The stubborn reality standing in the way of practical quantum computing is that qubits are exquisitely sensitive to quantum noise (random fluctuations arising from the fundamentally indeterminate state of matter) that can cause them to decohere. Whatever physical system is being used to embody qubits in a state of coherent superposition and keep multiple qubits entangled, it will require elaborate and expensive controls.
DCVC DTOR 2024: In the AI race, data will emerge as the critical asset
The story of AlphaFold, the AI program from DeepMind that transformed computational biology beginning in 2018, is usually framed as a victory for deep-learning algorithms. The problem it solved — predicting a protein’s 3D structure based solely on its amino acid sequence — was long considered intractable, but the AlphaFold team showed that it could be cracked using a form of attention-based transformer.
DCVC DTOR 2024: A few words on the investing climate
How are we putting our funds to work to realize the ambitious goals spelled out in this year’s Deep Tech Opportunities Report? And why are we convinced, at an intellectual and a gut level, that DCVC’s approach to deep-tech investing will bring venture-scale returns while nurturing companies that change the world? Like the companies in our portfolio, we’re closely attuned to data. So let’s look at some numbers.
DCVC DTOR 2024: Introduction
Our argument goes something like this: we are not “techno-optimist” maximalists, but we do have hope. We see the possibility of a future — perhaps by the late twenty-first or early twenty-second century— when people will be living in unprecedented prosperity and equality. The citizens of this future world will enjoy greatly extended lifespans and healthspans. Water, food, and energy will be plentiful.
Lumafield announces breakthrough in CT scanning: from hours/minutes…
A picture is worth a thousand words — and sometimes much, much more. The image above represents a staggering achievement by DCVC-backed Lumafield: a 3,600X improvement in the speed of generating a given high-quality CT scan, as compared to the industry-standard method.
Valar Labs introduces a smarter cancer test
When a cancer therapy comes along, such as Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunotherapy for bladder cancer, one of the things oncologists would like to know is why only some cancer patients are helped. If they could predict in advance which patients will and won’t respond, they could spare the non-responders the unnecessary toxicity and direct them toward alternative treatments. It turns out those are questions doctors can now start to answer — but only with the help of AI.
Retail Sales Monitor: Easter Fails to Light Up Retail Sales
Period covered: April 24Published: May 07, 2024Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Easter Fails to Light Up Retail Sales Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: Dismal weather and disappointing sales led to a depressing start to Spring for retailers, even accounting for the change in timing of Easter. People delayed typical Spring purchases despite retailers’ attempts to entice customers with heavy discounts.
The TechMed movement has arrived
In biology, a speciation event refers to the process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The field of medical technology, or MedTech, is currently undergoing such a process as AI, machine learning, and an array of new sensors including computer vision technologies combine to create an entirely new movement – TechMed – that promises to drive better patient outcomes globally. Traditional MedTech is a $500-billion-a-year industry focused primarily on medical devices.
Retail Sales Monitor: Early Easter Brings Small Boost to Retail Sales
Period covered: March 24Published: April 09, 2024Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Early Easter Brings Small Boost to Retail Sales Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: “While retail sales growth improved last month, this was largely driven by Easter falling unusually early and the subsequent uplift to food sales in the week preceding the long weekend.
Retail Sales Monitor: Retail Sales Slow as High Cost of Living Enters Third Year
Period covered: January 24Published: February 06, 2024Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Retail Sales Slow as High Cost of Living Enters Third Year Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: “Easing inflation and weak consumer demand led retail sales growth to slow. While the January sales helped to boost spending in the first two weeks, this did not sustain throughout the month.
Agility Robotics: augmenting Amazon’s warehouse workforce
When Agility Robotics’ Chief Robot Officer Jonathan Hurst says the company’s mission is “to enable humans to be more human,” it’s not just a slogan. It’s a vision of the future. And now Amazon is exploring that future alongside Agility. Here in the present, of course, people in labor-intensive businesses are still asked to do boring and repetitive tasks that can lead to burnout, injuries, and even debilitating pain.
Retail Sales Monitor: Sales Subdued During Indian Summer
Period covered: September 23Published: October 10, 2023Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Sales Subdued During Indian Summer Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: Sales growth in September slowed as the high cost of living continues to bear down on households. Big ticket items such as furniture and electricals performed poorly as consumers limited spending in the face of higher housing, rental and fuel costs.
DCVC Leads $14 Million Seed Round for Noetik
We are thrilled to announce DCVC has led a $14 million seed financing round for Noetik (and see Endpoints coverage here), a computationally driven company employing broad and novel AI to give humanity the edge in its fight against cancer. Noetik is using spatial biology and machine learning to unravel the complex circuitry of cancer, and aims to empower pharmaceutic teams to develop better cancer treatments that have a higher probability of clinical success.
Dismal Summer Weather Leads to Sales Slump
Period covered: July 23Published: August 16, 2023Read time: 1min Scottish Retail Sales Monitor Dismal Summer Weather Leads to Sales Slump Ewan MacDonald Russell, Head of Policy & External Affairs, Scottish Retail Consortium: Sales sharply fell in July as the miserable economic news combined with unseasonable weather to heap misery on shops.
Retail Sales Monitor: June Sunshine Brightens Retail Sales
Period covered: June 23Published: July 11, 2023Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: June Sunshine Brightens Retail Sales Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: Retail sales growth ticked up slightly in June as hot weather prompted purchases of summer essentials. Sun-seekers headed to their favourite retailers to buy swimwear and beach towels, and outdoor games, garden furniture and barbecue food were boosted as families came together to celebrate Father’s Day.
Retail Sales Monitor: Easter Brings Growth Despite Poor Weather
Period covered: April 23Published: April 11, 2023Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Easter Brings Growth Despite Poor Weather Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: While retail sales grew in April, overall inflation meant volumes were down for both food and non-food as customers continued to adjust spending habits. Clothing sales underperformed as the poor weather left customers thinking twice before decking out their summer wardrobe.
Retail Sales Monitor: Sales Beat Expectations Despite Falling Volumes
Period covered: January 23Published: March 07, 2023Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Retail Sales Monitor: Sales Beat Expectations Despite Falling Volumes Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: Retail sales held up better than expected this February, though volumes remained down on last year. While the cost-of-living crisis has made customers increasingly price sensitive, they are still ready to celebrate special occasions.
Christmas Cheer Gives Way to January Sales
Period covered: January 23Published: February 07, 2023Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Christmas Cheer Gives Way to January Sales Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: As Christmas cheer subsided, retailers felt the January blues as sales growth slowed. Many retailers discounted heavily to entice consumer spend, and while there were bargains to be had in the January sales, retailers continue to be hit by lower margins and falling volumes.
Late Festive Spending Drives Sales Pick-Up
Period covered: November 22Published: December 06, 2022Read time: 15min Retail Sales Monitor Late Festive Spending Drives Sales Pick-Up Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC: Sales picked up as Black Friday discounting marked the beginning of the festive shopping season. However, sales growth remained far below current inflation, suggesting volumes continued to be down on last year.
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