為了支持走在“科學(xué)前沿”的公司，紐約的風(fēng)投公司Lux Capital已經(jīng)通過(guò)兩只新基金募集了超過(guò)10億美元，其中包括為公司第6只旗艦早期投資基金募集的5億美元和為專注于成長(zhǎng)階段投資的另一只機(jī)會(huì)基金募集的5.5億美元。有限合伙人包括全球基金會(huì)、大學(xué)捐贈(zèng)基金和技術(shù)界的億萬(wàn)富翁。

Lux還宣布將迪娜·夏基爾納入麾下。她之前曾經(jīng)就職于Google Ventures，這次以投資合伙人的身份加入了Lux。

在普通人看來(lái)，Lux的投資就像脫離實(shí)際的登月計(jì)劃。該公司支持的企業(yè)家研究的項(xiàng)目涉及神經(jīng)刺激、核能、合成生物學(xué)等，無(wú)所不包。上一次在采訪公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人和任事股東喬什·烏爾夫時(shí)，我確實(shí)認(rèn)為他投資的某家公司“極度瘋狂”。

不過(guò)烏爾夫認(rèn)為一點(diǎn)也不。他表示：“我們對(duì)那些具有科學(xué)反叛精神的創(chuàng)始人很感興趣。他們致力于縮小科學(xué)幻想和科學(xué)事實(shí)之間的距離。換句話說(shuō)，這些事情曾經(jīng)只存在于某些人的想象之中，如今卻正在走進(jìn)現(xiàn)實(shí)?！?/p>

開發(fā)非侵入式神經(jīng)接口的CTRL-labs就是這樣一家公司?！胺乔秩胧缴窠?jīng)接口”究竟有什么作用？簡(jiǎn)單來(lái)說(shuō)，該公司正在開發(fā)一款能夠把肌電脈沖轉(zhuǎn)化為數(shù)字信號(hào)的設(shè)備。

烏爾夫是該公司的早期支持者，他暗示自己的公司將通過(guò)新募集的資金在不久的將來(lái)做出更有意義的投資。而我也確認(rèn)目前總計(jì)募集資金超過(guò)6,700萬(wàn)美元的CTRL-labs正在醞釀新一輪融資。

CTRL-labs的首席執(zhí)行官托馬斯·里爾登表示：“過(guò)去六個(gè)月里，我們實(shí)現(xiàn)了一些重要的技術(shù)突破，這實(shí)際上讓我們有了擴(kuò)大融資的立場(chǎng)。”他補(bǔ)充道，一大突破在于，他們?nèi)缃窨梢詮膯蝹€(gè)神經(jīng)元的層面非侵入性地觀察人類的運(yùn)動(dòng)神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)。

烏爾夫相信，里爾登的技術(shù)除了顯而易見的醫(yī)療和生物技術(shù)用途之外，還能夠發(fā)揮其他作用。在他描繪的世界里，人們并攏手指就可以打開Spotify，在空中劃過(guò)手指，就能夠切換下一首歌。里爾登表示：“喬什是個(gè)堅(jiān)韌無(wú)情的人。我都說(shuō)不清他究竟多少次提醒我這家公司可以發(fā)展到多大規(guī)模了?！?/p>

Lux投資的其他公司包括Desktop Metal、Planet、Rigetti Computing和Auris Health（已經(jīng)被強(qiáng)生公司以34億美元現(xiàn)金收購(gòu)）。隨著投資合伙人迪娜·夏基爾的加入，公司還將強(qiáng)化在數(shù)字健康等領(lǐng)域的投資。

夏基爾對(duì)《財(cái)富》雜志表示：“曾經(jīng)的前沿技術(shù)如今已經(jīng)向大眾普及。你可以通過(guò)手機(jī)進(jìn)行人類基因組排序并獲取數(shù)據(jù)。這既是挑戰(zhàn)，也是機(jī)遇?！?/p>

技術(shù)的發(fā)展之快前所未有。夏基爾認(rèn)為，迅速的創(chuàng)新步伐對(duì)投資尖端技術(shù)公司的風(fēng)投公司而言是一把雙刃劍?！捌渲写嬖谖覀儚奈匆娺^(guò)的倫理挑戰(zhàn)，這種危險(xiǎn)我們不能再視而不見。投資者有責(zé)任幫助這些公司在創(chuàng)立早期出臺(tái)倫理標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

Lux Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm, has raised more than $1 billion across two new funds to back companies on “the cutting edge of science.” The firm raised $500 million for its sixth flagship early-stage fund and another $550 million for an opportunity fund focused on growth-stage investments. Limited partners include global foundations, university endowments, and tech billionaires.

Lux also announced a new hire: Deena Shakir, formerly of GV (Google Ventures), has joined as an investment partner.

To the regular person, Lux’s investments are considered moonshot. The firm has backed entrepreneurs that are working on everything from neurostimulation to nuclear energy to synthetic biology. During my last interview with co-founder and managing partner Josh Wolfe, I actually called one of his portfolio companies “freaking crazy.”

But to Wolfe, they’re anything but. “We’re interested in founders who are scientific rebels,” he told me. “They are focused on shrinking the gap between sci-fi and ‘sci-fact.’ In other words, these are things that were once conceived in someone’s imagination and are now being crystallized into reality.”

CTRL-labs, which is developing a non-invasive neural interface, is one such company. What does "a non-invasive neural interface" do exactly? To put it more simply, CTRL-labs is building a device capable of translating electrical muscle impulses into digital signals.

Wolfe was an early backer of the company, and he hinted that his firm will be making an even more meaningful investment in the near future through its newly-raised funds. I confirmed that CTRL-labs, which has raised more than $67 million in total funding, is currently in the midst of raising a fresh round of capital.

“We’ve had some important technical breakthroughs in the last six months that have put us in a position to raise more substantially,” said CTRL-labs CEO Thomas Reardon. One of those breakthroughs, he added, is the ability to non-invasively observe the human motor nervous system at the level of an individual neuron.

Wolfe believes Reardon’s technology isn’t just limited to the obvious medical and biotech applications. He describes a world in which people will tap their fingers together to turn on Spotify and swipe to the left in the air to change the next song. “Josh is just relentless,” Reardon says. “I can’t tell you how many times he’s had to remind me just how big this company could be.”

Other companies in the Lux portfolio include Desktop Metal, Planet, Rigetti Computing, and Auris Health (acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $3.4 billion in cash). The firm will be beefing up its investments in sectors including digital health with the addition of Deena Shakir coming on as an investment partner.

“What was previously frontier tech is now available to the masses,” Shakir told Fortune. “You can sequence the human genome and get the data on your phone. That’s both a challenge and an opportunity.”

Technology is evolving at a pace faster than ever before, and Shakir believes that rapid innovation could be a double-edged sword for venture firms investing in moonshot companies. “There are ethical challenges we’ve never seen before, and it’s not something that can be ignored anymore. Investors are responsible for helping foster those ethical standards in their companies during the earliest days.”