Venture capital firm anticipates investments will draw dollars to NM

State investors believe their most recent financial commitment will help draw more money into New Mexico.

The New Mexico State Investment Council in March approved a $50 million commitment to DCVC, a deep-tech venture capital firm based in California.

Zachary Bogue is the co-founder and managing partner for DCVC. He said the company is excited to partner with New Mexico, and $50 million is a terrific endorsement and sizable commitment.

He said the dollars are going to DCVC’s climate fund, which focuses on solving real world climate problems through technology. The DCVC Climate venture fund invests in 10 to 15 companies, he said.

“We believe that some of our investment dollars from sort of the broader fund will be behind companies that ultimately do attract investment dollars into the state, both our own as well as outside investment dollars,” he said.

Bogue said New Mexico has good climate tech companies, a driven business industry and a receptive political environment. He said there’s also a lot of energy sources, both conventional and renewable, as well as a highly skilled energy workforce.

“New Mexico is a terrific place to scale climate companies,” he said.

Bogue said DCVC has portfolio companies with potential business operations in New Mexico. The company is evaluating and making investments in opportunities focused on water purification, geothermal energy production and methane leak detection technology, according to a March news release from the SIC.

“If and when those projects scale, that will attract a lot of investment dollars into New Mexico,” Bogue said.

The venture firm has invested in New Mexico before. Bogue said DCVC invested in a former tech startup headquartered in New Mexico that was semi-related to Los Alamos National Laboratory, though it didn’t succeed.

DCVC also invests in and is on the board of Fervo Energy, a Texas-based green energy company that specializes in geothermal energy. The company has a lease holding in New Mexico, Bogue said, where the company could build a “fairly large” geothermal plant.

New Mexico State Investment Officer Jon Clark said in a statement pairing New Mexico’s plentiful natural resources and scientific human capital with the expertise of proven entrepreneurs is a good fit.

“It’s investments like these that can produce not only strong financial returns, but that should also help create new companies and industries here in our state as we move toward the global energy transition,” Clark said.

The SIC has committed nearly $540 million since late 2022 to 14 local, regional and national venture capital firms that invest in tech- or science-related companies headquartered in New Mexico or with operations in the state, according to the council’s March news release.