Deep tech is a category of venture-backed companies built on advanced science and engineering, complex IP, and regulatory frameworks that standard startup legal practices aren’t equipped to handle.
Altum Legal is a deep tech law firm serving founders across seven sectors where overlapping regulations, university-licensed IP, export controls, and patient-capital structures create legal needs that look nothing like SaaS.
We chose these verticals because we work in them every day. Founded by Austin Harms after seven years in Perkins Coie’s emerging companies and venture capital practice, Altum provides senior-led counsel to VC-backed deep tech companies from formation through exit.
A SaaS company raising a Series A deals with a cap table, employment agreements, and commercial contracts. A deep tech company raising the same round might add a university license with sub-licensing restrictions, a government grant with compliance obligations, export controls that affect hiring, and a regulatory pathway no agency has fully defined.
The template library doesn’t cover these matters, and it’s unlikely a generalist startup lawyer has dealt with them all. Deep tech legal work requires counsel who already understands Bayh-Dole march-in provisions, ITAR deemed-export rules, multi-agency regulatory jurisdiction, and the corporate structures that patient capital demands.
For a deeper look at what makes deep tech legally distinct, read our article: “Does Your Lawyer Know Deep Tech?”
AI crosses into deep tech territory when it intersects with physical systems, regulated products, or dual-use applications. Autonomous navigation systems fall under ITAR. Medical diagnostic models face FDA oversight. High-risk decision-making systems trigger compliance obligations under the Colorado AI Act (effective June 2026) and the EU AI Act (main enforcement August 2026, penalties up to 7% of global revenue).
Altum serves as outside counsel to AI companies where the regulatory exposure goes beyond standard software.
Crypto founders face a federal-state regulatory gap that changes faster than most counsel can track. The SEC's March 2026 interpretive release clarified federal token classification, but 49 states still require separate money transmitter licenses and the CLARITY Act remains in committee. Meanwhile, Article 12 of the UCC has created a new legal foundation for tokenizing real-world assets—loan receivables, private credit, fund interests—as controllable electronic records with enforceable ownership rights.
We work with crypto founders, RWA platforms, and their investors on token classification, securities compliance, CER architecture, and the licensing patchwork that defines the current landscape.
Nanomaterials and nanodevice companies operate in a regulatory environment that's still being defined. Depending on the application, oversight may come from EPA under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), FDA for consumer and medical products, or OSHA for workplace safety.
University spinouts in nanotech carry complex IP chains, often involving government-funded research and shared patent portfolios. The absence of a unified nano-specific framework creates uncertainty that needs to be managed from formation onward.
There is no unified federal regulatory framework for robotics. Medical robots go through FDA. Industrial systems follow OSHA standards referencing ISO 10218. Consumer products fall under CPSC. Defense and dual-use robotics add ITAR and CFIUS considerations.
That fragmentation is the legal challenge for robotics founders. The rules depend entirely on what the robot does and who uses it. Altum helps robotics companies map the applicable frameworks for their specific application and build compliance into the company from the start.
Most spacecraft and launch technology falls under ITAR, where a single foreign hire accessing technical data constitutes a deemed export requiring a State Department license. FCC spectrum proceedings shape who can operate in orbit. And no U.S. agency has clear authority over on-orbit commercial activities.
A space startup’s legal stack touches export controls, government contracting, launch licensing, and spectrum rights simultaneously. Altum advises space and defense companies on the full regulatory surface from formation through financing.
Synbio founders face the Coordinated Framework’s jurisdictional tangle: FDA, USDA, and EPA oversight that varies by product type and by species. University spinouts add Bayh-Dole complications. State-level product bans create additional compliance layers.
The regulatory surface area is wide and moving, and investors expect founders to articulate their pathway clearly during diligence. Altum has deep experience advising synbio companies on IP licensing, multi-agency regulatory strategy, and the governance structures institutional investors expect.
If your company checks two or more of these boxes, we should talk:
Deep tech refers to companies built on advanced science and engineering where the technology itself creates significant barriers to entry. These companies face long development timelines, high capital requirements, complex IP (often originating from university or government-funded research), and regulatory oversight from multiple agencies.
Deep tech is a distinct category that includes synthetic biology, space and defense, crypto, AI, energy, nanotech, and robotics. The term has become standard in the VC ecosystem.
Deep tech companies face legal challenges that don’t exist in standard software startups, like overlapping federal and state regulatory jurisdictions, IP chains that trace back through university licenses and government grants with strings attached, export controls like ITAR that affect hiring and investor decisions, and corporate structures designed for patient capital over multi-year development timelines.
A generalist startup lawyer may be excellent at SaaS financings but has likely never navigated a Bayh-Dole license, flagged a deemed-export risk, or mapped a multi-agency regulatory pathway.
Altum Legal serves VC-backed founders in seven deep tech sectors: AI, crypto, energy, nanotech, robotics, space and defense, and synthetic biology. Each sector creates distinct legal needs rooted in regulatory complexity, specialized IP, and the capital structures required to bring science-based products to market.
We serve as outside general counsel to companies in these sectors from formation through exit, including corporate governance, venture financings, commercial contracts, IP strategy, and M&A.
Standard startup law is built around software companies with relatively simple regulatory profiles: a cap table, employment agreements, commercial contracts, and maybe a privacy policy. Deep tech law adds additional layers that most startups don’t encounter: university IP licensing under Bayh-Dole, export control compliance under ITAR, regulatory pathway analysis across multiple federal agencies (FDA, USDA, EPA, FAA, FCC, NRC, FERC, and others), and corporate structures that accommodate government grants, strategic investors, and long R&D timelines.
And the cost of errors is higher because deep tech companies invest more time and capital before reaching revenue.