Cloud seeding startup Rainmaker raises $6.3 million.

Dorico — multifaceted, laid-back, and an El Segundo fixture — went in search of God in his late teens and (really) early 20s.

“I studied under two nondenominational priests, a Catholic priest and Anglican priests, a Sunni imam, an Orthodox rabbi, a Reform rabbi, and a Buddhist monk — the Buddhist monk left really early,” he smiles. He told me.

It sounds like a non-sequitur (in case you’re wondering, Dorico now identifies as a Christian). But that’s the premise for the philosophical, existential type who, at age 24, founded a startup dedicated to cloud seeding, a climate modification technique that tries to introduce ice nuclei from clouds. , which causes precipitation. Rain And lest you think this is some crackpot idea with no backers, you’d be sorely mistaken.

Rainmaker has raised $6.3 million for its seed round, the company announced today. The investor group includes Long Journey Ventures, DayOne Ventures, Tamarack Global, 1517 Fund, Starship VC, and Champion Hill Ventures, Gary Tan and (among others) former Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan.

And Doriko (a Thielfellow) knows you think it’s wild. I asked him how often he was told he was crazy.

“every single day!”

His joy, especially when we dig deeper, is armed with a very persuasive element: history.

As it turns out, cloud seeding actually has a long, colorful history in the US. His brother was also involved. And, from 1962 to 1983, the U.S. government’s Project Stormfury attempted to weaken storms by infusing airplanes with silver iodide.

But Project Stormfury had a data problem—it was really hard to tell that it was working with technology that existed as far back as the 80s. But the long-standing government program proved that rain is literally possible, hard to quantify.

“We know that with the right conditions our magic beans work in a tank and we can make it rain, but clouds are very dynamic systems,” Dorico said. “There’s no control in nature, right? One cloud versus another, they’re completely different…Then, just because you got rain, how much rain or snow did you get? It was completely unbelievable.”

“It’s a problem that’s well on its way to being solved,” Dorico said. And recently cloud seeding has been the subject of international headlines (consider the flooding in Dubai, as people clamor over whether Cloud seeding is the cause.) and, in China, the country’s cloud seeding operation is among them. The largest in the world.

I ask Doriko if it has rained yet.

“Not yet,” he said. “We moved into our lab in December, hired our first engineers in January… then the season was over by the time our product was mature enough. So right now, our options are to fly to Alaska. …or focus on engineering now, then hit the ground running in September.

And finally, while the phrase “change in weather” sounds grandiose, it’s actually a lot quieter than that in some ways, especially when it comes to the “modification” part.

“You can’t eliminate a hurricane, but you can slow down the flooding it causes,” Dorico said.

I pointed out to Dorico that there is an irony here—that one could argue that, on the surface, changing the weather is a way of playing God.

“We’ve already intentionally changed the environment in different ways,” Dorico said. has been like But just as a dam is changing creation, so is changing the weather.

See you tomorrow,

Joe Abrams prepared the deals section of today’s newsletter.

Venture deals

– Over t bioa New York City-based developer of cellular therapies for solid tumors, raised $16 million in seed funding. Arts Ventures And Wing VC Led and joined the round. Fusion Fund, OMX Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, Gangles, Cultural projects, HawktailAnd Cancer Research Institute.

– NervousBoston, has raised $13 million in funding from a mass-based developer of brain-computer interface technology, including headphones that can identify and interpret the user’s brain signals. Ultratech Capital Partners, TRAC, Pace VenturesAnd Metaplanet.

Private equity

– EQT Agreed to take. They will finish. (NASDAQ: PRFT )St. Louis, Mo. based digital consultancy, private for about $3 billion in cash.

– Clear Lake Capital Group And Francisco partner agreed to acquire the Software Integrity Group unit of Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS )A Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip designer, worth $2.1 billion.

– Hello dreamA portfolio company of Transom Capitalobtained Breathable BabySt. Louis Park, Minn. manufacturer of sleep products for children. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Iron Marksupported by Post Capital Partnersobtained Media deliveryA provider of multi-channel marketing campaign services in Tampa, Florida and L&D Mail Masters, a New Albany, Ind. based direct mail firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Traffic and Mobility ConsultantsA portfolio company of Grocourt Capital Partnersobtained Links and Associates, Tampa, Fla. based transportation and traffic engineering services firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Goes out.

– KKR Agreed to receive Healthim Medtecha medical device company based in Bengaluru, India Apex partner. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Other

– Axon (NASDAQ: AXON) Agreed to receive Didron, a Washington, DC-based developer of airspace security technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Released. received CCT Technologies, San Jose, Calif. A provider of IT solutions to government, universities and commercial customers based on Financial terms were not disclosed.

the people

– Ben Capitala private equity firm based in Boston, Mass., was hired. Kevin Quirk As global head of partner and investor relations. First he was with. What a Quirk.

– Portagethe corporate venture capital arm based in Toronto, Canada Sagard Holdingspromoted. Lavigne wins To the principal