ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive.

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures.

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.

THE CHALLENGE

Removing tens of billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently storing it at a reasonable cost is the challenge for our age. Drastic reductions in emissions are necessary but not sufficient to ensure a safe climate–we could shut down every fossil power plant, every gas-powered vehicle, every cement plant, and every smelter and the planet will continue to warm due to the carbon we’ve already put into the atmosphere. Implementing carbon capture and sequestration at scale is critical to avoid the worst case scenarios.

Ocean-based carbon sequestration technologies show promise for simultaneously capturing and permanently storing hundreds of billions of tons of CO2. Current techniques include ocean alkalinity enhancement, to increase the ocean’s capacity for dissolved carbon dioxide and reverse ocean acidification; iron fertilization to enhance the growth of carbon-consuming plankton; and the growing and sinking of biomass to deep waters where the carbon will remain on the seafloor.

Unfortunately, ocean-based carbon sequestration techniques are plagued by difficulties in measurement and accounting of the carbon stored. It is also unclear what effect they will have on ecosystems, especially when deployed at a meaningful scale.

What if we could get the benefits of ocean carbon sequestration without all the risks? What if we could use ocean storage technologies without the ocean? And what if we could deploy them not just for carbon capture, but to clean up an environmental hazard?

WHAT WE’RE BUILDING

We’re taking technologies originally developed to store carbon in the ocean and using them to capture and store CO2 in abandoned mine waters, all while cleaning up the water. The water that collects in closed strip mines is often highly acidic and full of toxic metals, but is rarely remediated. As a result, thousands of these hazardous pit lakes dot the landscape, presenting a threat to wildlife and water sources, as well as an enormous liability for mine owners.

We will use well-established chemical processes to achieve high carbon capture efficiency and high ramp rate, producing sellable byproducts and recovering a significant portion of the energy used. Our one-step capture and storage process has the potential to permanently sequester gigatons of carbon at costs below $50/tonne.

Requirements

We’re seeking creative, open-minded leaders with a strong desire to build a new company with a huge impact on climate change.

You must have:

• Expertise in any of:
  • carbon mineralization, enhanced weathering, or geological carbon storage; AND/OR
  • monitoring, remediating, or modelling mining-affected waters (e.g. pit lakes, acid mine drainage, groundwater contamination); AND/OR
  • geochemistry, geology, hydrology, limnology, biogeochemistry or hydrogeology.
    
• Interest in co-founding a climate tech company.

It would be cool if you also have:

• Experience working with pit lakes or government programs for abandoned mine lands
• An advanced degree and >3 years industry experience

Benefits

OUR OFFER

We are a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. We are deeply involved in each company, providing:

• Mentorship and guidance through weekly deep dive work sessions, access to our opportunity insights and knowledge base, access to a global network of experts, access to a community of other science Founders working on launching their own companies, and a curated collection of resources and proprietary tools, including for hiring Co-Founders, Advisors and first employees;
• £250k pre-seed investment, access to our industry network, advice on follow-on fundraising strategy, including:
  • advice on technical and commercial investment milestones, co-development of technical roadmap and go to market strategy, investment readiness pre-launch with further focus on technical and commercial proof, customer development support;
  • introductions to seed investors and potential customers from our global network, support with term sheet negotiation, supporting grant applications to leverage further non-dilutive funding and value uplift and access to a community of seasoned science founders in our portfolio;
• A monthly stipend so that you’ll have guaranteed income before you’re able to secure the pre-seed investment. In other words, we pay you to start your own company. We also cover pre-investment expenses that are crucial for the development of the project;
• Co-Founder(s): you will be joining Dr. Kate Murphy as a co-founder to build and de-risk a venture targeting the drawdown of CO2. Dr. Kate Murphy has worked on a huge range of cleantech and climate tech projects, from lithium-ion batteries to energy harvesting semiconductors to sunlight reflection via marine cloud brightening. She holds a PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in physics and applied mathematics from the George Washington University, with 7 years industrial R&D experience at ABB, Xerox PARC, and as the first hire at a hardware startup.