Jack Paul 
Investment firm Hivemind Capital, which focuses on deep technology, has introduced a new program called Darkmatter Lab. The program aims to help researchers turn advanced scientific work into commercial products before forming a company.
The initiative was developed in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley. It will become a key part of Hivemind’s upcoming venture fund. Legal support will come from Gunderson Dettmer and Goodwin Procter. Cloud infrastructure resources will be provided by Google Cloud.
Funding and support for each project
Each selected project will receive at least $1 million in combined support. This includes direct research funding from Hivemind Capital. It also includes $350,000 in cloud computing credits through Google’s startup program. Legal assistance will cover immigration, intellectual property, and company formation. Operational support will come through Berkeley SkyDeck.
Focus areas for the first projects
The first group of projects will focus on artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. Areas of interest include AI infrastructure, autonomous agent systems, cybersecurity, compute optimization, cryptography, and decentralized networks.
Hivemind says the goal is to create a pathway for promising research to move from academic environments into practical applications. The idea is to give researchers access to capital, infrastructure, and business resources at a much earlier stage than traditional startup funding models allow. This could help bridge the gap between university labs and real-world products, which is often a difficult leap for many scientists.