Dan Watkins
Co-Founder and Managing Director @ Mercury Fund
Houston, United States
Dan Watkins is a Series B investor at Mercury Fund in Houston focused on Biotechnology and Health Care. Dr. Watkins is a Managing Director of DFJ Mercury, a venture capital firm focused on seed and early-stage investments in the sciences and software sectors in the mid-continent region. He is actively investing in both energy related physical sciences startups and life sciences startups. Prior to co-founding DFJ Mercury, Dr. Watkins was the founder and Managing Partner of A3 Associates, a venture firm focused on seed-stage investments in university and research center-based technology transfer opportunities. Dr. Watkins received his BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Rice University and his MS and Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He currently serves on the advisory boards of BioHouston, the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship, and Northwestern University’s Innovation and New Ventures Office.
- Total investments:
- 41
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 24%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Dan Watkins invests in
Stages Dan Watkins invests in
Countries Dan Watkins invests in
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Biotechnology 8 (20%)
- Health Care 5 (12%)
- Medical 3 (7%)
- AgTech 2 (5%)
- Agriculture 2 (5%)
Stage
- Series B 7 (17%)
- Series A 6 (15%)
- Debt Financing 6 (15%)
- Series C 3 (7%)
- Series D 2 (5%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that unlocks the natural diversity of plants and empowers innovators with a revolutionary crop design platform to develop healthier and more sustainable food and ingredients.Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, flavorful, and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversityof plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. | $150M / Series D / Oct 29, 2020 | ||
| Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that unlocks the natural diversity of plants and empowers innovators with a revolutionary crop design platform to develop healthier and more sustainable food and ingredients.Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, flavorful, and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversityof plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. | $32.6M / Series C / Aug 02, 2019 | ||
| Sight Machine specializes in manufacturing analytics and used by Global 500 companies to make better, faster decisions about their operations. Sight Machine's analytics platform, purpose-built for discrete and process manufacturing, uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to help address critical challenges inquality and productivity throughout the enterprise.The platform is powered by the industry’s only Plant Digital Twin, which enables real-time visibility and actionable insights for every machine, line, and plant throughout an enterprise.It was founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $29.4M / Series C / Apr 23, 2019 | ||
| Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that unlocks the natural diversity of plants and empowers innovators with a revolutionary crop design platform to develop healthier and more sustainable food and ingredients.Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, flavorful, and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversityof plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. | $65M / Series C / Sep 10, 2018 | ||
| Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that unlocks the natural diversity of plants and empowers innovators with a revolutionary crop design platform to develop healthier and more sustainable food and ingredients.Benson Hill empowers innovators to develop more healthy, flavorful, and sustainable food by unlocking the natural genetic diversityof plants. Benson Hill’s CropOS™ platform combines machine learning and big data with breeding techniques and plant biology to drastically accelerate and simplify the product development process. | $25M / Series B / May 28, 2017 | ||
| Sight Machine specializes in manufacturing analytics and used by Global 500 companies to make better, faster decisions about their operations. Sight Machine's analytics platform, purpose-built for discrete and process manufacturing, uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to help address critical challenges inquality and productivity throughout the enterprise.The platform is powered by the industry’s only Plant Digital Twin, which enables real-time visibility and actionable insights for every machine, line, and plant throughout an enterprise.It was founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $6M / Series B / Nov 16, 2016 | ||
| Clean Chemistry is a biotechnology company that specializes in the field of water management and water purification. It develops oxidant chemistries based on activated oxygen in liquid formulations for water treatment, reuse, and recycling, particularly for use in hydraulic fracturing and enhanced oil recovery processes.The company wasincorporated in 2012 and is based in Boulder, Colorado. | $300K / Debt Financing / Sep 07, 2016 | ||
| Sinopsys Surgical develops medical devices for surgical procedures for the lacrimal glands. The company was formerly known as DCS Surgical, Inc. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Boulder, Colorado. | $100K / Debt Financing / Sep 02, 2016 | ||
| Resonant Therapeutics’s platform allows for the simultaneous discovery of novel targets and high affinity, functional antibodies with unprecedented speed. Using novel insights into the tumor microenvironment and the immune system, their platform identifies targets and therapeutic candidates for any patient derived tumor tissue or cell line,including cancer stem cells. The platform is extensible to other microenvironment regulated disease. They have created a pipeline of candidates with potent, direct anti-tumor activity, initially in breast and ovarian cancers. Their antibodies are expected to work as a monotherapy or in synergistic combination with emerging immunotherapies. | $559.8K / Series A / Jul 05, 2016 | ||
| Sight Machine specializes in manufacturing analytics and used by Global 500 companies to make better, faster decisions about their operations. Sight Machine's analytics platform, purpose-built for discrete and process manufacturing, uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to help address critical challenges inquality and productivity throughout the enterprise.The platform is powered by the industry’s only Plant Digital Twin, which enables real-time visibility and actionable insights for every machine, line, and plant throughout an enterprise.It was founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $13.5M / Series B / Mar 22, 2016 | ||
| See all 41 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Mercury Fund
Mercury is an early-stage venture capital platform that seeks out transformative software startups, led by exceptional founders, in communities across America. To date, Mercury has created over $18 billion of value with an operationally-focused venture investment strategy helping startups achieve rapid, sustainable growth. Mercury partners with first-time entrepreneurs who require support and guidance, as well as seasoned founders seeking to leverage the assets and talent of our growth partner network.
Mercury Fund Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Adrian Fortino
Managing Director
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Andreas Galliker
Chief Financial Officer
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Aziz Gilani
Managing Director
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Blair Garrou
Co-Founder and Managing Director
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Dan Watkins
Co-Founder and Managing Director
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FAQ
What does Dan Watkins invest in?
Dan Watkins invests primarily in Biotechnology, Health Care and Medical startups, most often at Series B and Series A stage. Most of the 41 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Dan Watkins?
Public channels for Dan Watkins include LinkedIn and X (Twitter). For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Dan Watkins last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Dan Watkins closed in Oct 2020. Shizune tracks 41 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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