Steve Jurvetson

ZaiNar is the foundation layer of Physical AI. The company’s patented technology achieves sub-nanosecond time synchronization and distribution across wireless networks, transforming existing 5G and WiFi infrastructure into a comprehensive spatial sensing system. ZaiNar delivers central spatial awareness so connected systems know their location, understand surrounding assets, and share that context with AI that coordinates the physical world. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Belmont, CA, the company has had over $100 million in investment, is backed by tier-1 investors, including sharing a board member with SpaceX, and is valued at more than $1 billion.

Planet is the leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and insights. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible, and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest fleet of imaging satellites, as well as online software, tools and analytics needed to deliver data to users. Decision makers in business, government, and within organizations use Planets data and machine learning-powered analytics to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and make informed, timely decisions to solve our worlds toughest challenges. Visit us at https://www.planet.com/

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary. SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in December 2010. The company made history again in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads, and returned safely to Earth — a technically challenging feat previously accomplished only by governments. Since then Dragon has delivered cargo to and from the space station multiple times, providing regular cargo resupply missions for NASA. For more information, visit www.spacex.com.

Tesla is accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable abundance. To achieve our mission, were building a world powered by solar, enabled by battery storage and transported by electric vehicles. We’re committed to hiring and developing top talent from around the world for any given discipline. Headquartered in Texas, we operate six huge, vertically integrated factories across three continents. With over 100,000 employees, our teams take a first-principles approach to designing, building, selling and servicing our products in-house. Our world-class teams operate with a non-conventional philosophy of inter-disciplinary collaboration. Each member of the team is expected to challenge and to be challenged, to create, and to innovate. We’re tackling the world’s most difficult and important problems—and we wouldn’t succeed without our shared passion for making the world a better place.

Viridos is a privately held biotechnology company harnessing the power of photosynthesis to create transformative solutions to mitigate climate change. Our unparalleled understanding of algal genetics and ability to translate innovation from lab to field underpins our initial deployment: a scalable platform to produce low-carbon intensity biofuels for aviation, commercial trucking, and maritime shipping. Building on a legacy of genomic firsts, our team of scientists and engineers are shaping new pathways toward a sustainable bioeconomy. To learn more, visit us at Viridos.com.

D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services. We are the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, and the only company building both annealing and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to help customers realize the value of quantum, today. Our 5,000+ qubit Advantage quantum computers, the world’s largest, are available on-premises or via the cloud, supported by 99.9% availability and uptime. More than 100 organizations trust D-Wave with their toughest computational challenges. With over 200 million problems submitted to our Advantage systems and Advantage2 system prototypes to date, our customers apply our technology to address use cases spanning optimization, artificial intelligence, research and more. D-Wave is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. Learn more about realizing the value of quantum computing today and how we’re shaping the quantum-driven industrial and societal advancements of tomorrow: www.dwavequantum.com.

Lumentum has acquired NeoPhotonics. Get updates on former NeoPhotonics products by following Lumentum.

ZaiNar is the foundation layer of Physical AI. The company’s patented technology achieves sub-nanosecond time synchronization and distribution across wireless networks, transforming existing 5G and WiFi infrastructure into a comprehensive spatial sensing system. ZaiNar delivers central spatial awareness so connected systems know their location, understand surrounding assets, and share that context with AI that coordinates the physical world. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Belmont, CA, the company has had over $100 million in investment, is backed by tier-1 investors, including sharing a board member with SpaceX, and is valued at more than $1 billion.

At Future Ventures, we support passionate founders who are forging the future. For the past 23 years, we have backed the visionaries who push the boundaries of possibility and explore the frontier of the unknown. We focus on disruptive technology such as commercial space exploration, deep learning, quantum computing, robotics, AI, blockchain, sustainable transportation, synthetic biology and clean meat. As venture capitalists, the founders of Future Ventures have led founding investments in several companies that had successful IPOs and others that were acquired for over $16 billion in aggregate. Some of our early VC investments include Memphis Meats, Mythic, Nervana, Planet, Rethink Robotics, Skype, SpaceX, Tesla and Zoox. Here are some of those founding stories.

Planet is the leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and insights. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible, and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest fleet of imaging satellites, as well as online software, tools and analytics needed to deliver data to users. Decision makers in business, government, and within organizations use Planets data and machine learning-powered analytics to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and make informed, timely decisions to solve our worlds toughest challenges. Visit us at https://www.planet.com/

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary. SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in December 2010. The company made history again in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads, and returned safely to Earth — a technically challenging feat previously accomplished only by governments. Since then Dragon has delivered cargo to and from the space station multiple times, providing regular cargo resupply missions for NASA. For more information, visit www.spacex.com.

Tesla is accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable abundance. To achieve our mission, were building a world powered by solar, enabled by battery storage and transported by electric vehicles. We’re committed to hiring and developing top talent from around the world for any given discipline. Headquartered in Texas, we operate six huge, vertically integrated factories across three continents. With over 100,000 employees, our teams take a first-principles approach to designing, building, selling and servicing our products in-house. Our world-class teams operate with a non-conventional philosophy of inter-disciplinary collaboration. Each member of the team is expected to challenge and to be challenged, to create, and to innovate. We’re tackling the world’s most difficult and important problems—and we wouldn’t succeed without our shared passion for making the world a better place.