NVTC Newsletter No. 2
Happy Tech Tuesday, and welcome to the NVTC weekly newsletter! Here you’ll find recent updates from the tech world, insightful articles related to startups and highlights from NV portfolio companies.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES ⚡
⭐ Recursion – Phenomaps and disruptive pathways to drug discovery.
⭐ Something Smelly – The EV dilemma with relying on sulfuric acid.
⭐ Virtual Worlds – The blue bubble blues and a meta-mansion.
⭐ Venturing Out – What’s happening in a post-startup-craze market.
STARTUP HIGHLIGHT 🎢
When you think of life’s greatest unknowns, you might first think of outer space, with its infinite stars and galaxies. Or maybe you think of the ocean, with all its unexplored trenches. However, you likely don’t think of your own body. The truth is we know very little about the human body and the intricacies of cellular function. Recursion is building a powerful AI to change that and revolutionize drug discovery.
Recursion works with petabytes of data stored in “Phenomaps.” Phenomaps are basically biotech’s version of conspiracy boards, the walls with all the photos and yarn seen in crime shows. Scientists use deep learning to draw inferred relationships between data points. In this case, the data points are molecules. Recursion uses robots to do microscopy, enabling orders of magnitude more scale on experiments. This knowledge drives their AI testing and in vitro experiments.
Recursion currently has upwards of 50 drug programs and has partnered with Roche and Genentech to develop 40 more programs. The company completed an IPO in April 2021 and is currently in Phase II trials for multiple drugs, making significant headway on its mission to find better treatments faster and cheaper.
NEWS & ARTICLES 📖
There are new developments in the world’s ongoing battle against COVID-19. An inhaled version of a COVID-19 vaccine was approved as a booster dose this past week in China. This is the first approved nasal-spray vaccine out of more than 100 kinds currently under development.
Bet you didn’t know that the smelliest element on the periodic table, sulfur, is so important for renewable energy technologies. Most of the world’s sulfur comes from refining fossil fuels. How do we address this paradox in a net-zero future?
Yes, you read that headline right. If you can’t live in luxury, maybe your virtual self can. A new market listing in Miami Shores for “Reflection Manor” features a $7.7 million chateau that comes with a digital replica attached to an NFT.
Apple dropped the new iPhone 14, but there’s still one thing missing from its long list of features: RCS messaging. Apple’s iMessage is here to stay. For any Gen Zers worried about older family members missing out on a video of their new puppy eating a shoe, fret not. Tim Cook is overwhelmed with sympathy and recommends you “buy your mom an iPhone.”
Share prices of mature tech companies are tanking, and it’s causing a rift in the startup world. Venture investors are writing less checks, forcing startups to take on more debt. Big financial firms are expanding into venture debt in reaction to the current market.
DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) are changing biotech development and filling an important research gap. These organizations, where anyone can join and vote on what research to fund, are taking the mic away from traditional university-led and big pharma-led research. DAOs are expanding into blockchain to support health care startups.
REDDIT HIGHLIGHT 📈
A trending Reddit thread this week showcases how much of a yearly salary around the world you would need to spend to afford an iPhone 14. Here are the results:
This data doesn’t even include local tariffs! Is “an Apple a day” really worth it? How much are you willing to pay for a blue bubble?
I unfortunately don’t have the strength of character to switch to an Android. But I’m curious. For those of you that made it this far in the newsletter, send a message back with your best pitch for Androids.
OUTRO
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