Deeptech as an Asset Class: Why Long-Term Tech Is Back on the VC Radar - 0100 Weekly Brief
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For most of the last decade, venture capital has been built around speed. Deeptech never really fit that model.
Companies working on new materials, energy systems, robotics, or life sciences take years just to reach technical proof. And success depends on whether the technology actually works, not whether users click fast enough.
Because of that, deeptech was often seen as “too hard” for venture. But in recent years, that view seems to be changing.
Why DeepTech Is Becoming Europe’s Venture Opportunity
DeepTech is gaining momentum in Europe because it plays to the region’s natural strengths. Europe has a long history of excellence in science, engineering, and industrial innovation. In the 1970s and 1980s, this translated into strong economic growth driven by manufacturing and advanced industrial systems. But when the internet and consumer software wave took off in the 1990s, Europe fell behind the US in building global tech champions. As a result, economic growth slowed.
Today, DeepTech offers Europe a chance to re-enter the innovation race by turning its research institutions, talent base, and industrial know-how into scalable companies.
At the same time, global data shows a clear link between innovation and economic growth. Countries that have invested heavily in innovation, such as the US, China, Israel, and Singapore, have seen stronger GDP growth over the past two decades. Europe, by contrast, has underinvested in turning research into market-leading companies. DeepTech sits at the center of that gap.
It covers areas such as energy, climate, robotics, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing, sectors in which Europe already produces world-class research but has historically struggled to commercialize it at scale. Venture capital is increasingly focused on closing that gap.
This is why DeepTech has become such a hot topic for European venture investors right now. Beyond returns, it addresses broader questions: economic competitiveness, energy independence, food security, and national defense.
The European Markets That Are Already Making DeepTech Work
France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom stand out as core drivers of deep-tech momentum, consistently outperforming other European markets across key indicators, including total funding, late-stage capital, debt financing, and the number of university spin-offs. Together, these countries demonstrate what’s possible when strong research ecosystems are paired with capital that’s willing to remain committed beyond the early stages.
Sweden is a particularly strong example of how policy, capital, and long-term thinking can reinforce each other. Today, 65 percent of all startup funding in Sweden goes into deep-tech companies—more than any other European country.
A big reason is the role of institutional capital: Swedish pension funds allocate to venture at roughly twice the European average, helping deep-tech companies access both equity and debt earlier and more consistently. As a result, Sweden leads Europe not just in early funding, but also in late-stage deep-tech financing, where many countries still struggle.
Why European LPs Are Leaning Into DeepTech
European limited partners are showing strong, growing interest in deep-tech venture funds, as the data makes clear. In 2024, deep tech ranked just behind generalist funds in LP due diligence activity, ahead of many other popular strategies such as sustainability, secondaries, and pharma.
DeepTech companies consistently raise more capital than traditional tech companies at every stage, and the gap is especially pronounced among the strongest performers. From seed through Series B, top-quartile deep-tech startups in Europe raise larger rounds than their regular tech peers, reflecting higher capital needs for R&D, infrastructure, and longer development cycles.
Investors are willing to commit more capital earlier when they believe the underlying technology can support large, defensible outcomes. By Series C and beyond, the difference narrows at the median, but the best deep-tech companies still pull ahead, showing that when deep-tech works, it attracts disproportionately large checks and sustained investor conviction.
Deep-tech startups in Europe are also reaching unicorn status faster than traditional tech companies, on average, in about six years versus nearly eight for regular tech. Strong intellectual property, long-term industry partnerships, and continued access to capital help these companies scale more quickly once key technical milestones are reached.
For LPs seeking both differentiation and durable returns, deep tech is increasingly regarded as a compelling component of the venture portfolio.
What Investors Are Betting on in DeepTech for 2026
Limited partners in the region have been actively diligencing deep-tech funds, signaling confidence that breakthrough scientific and engineering companies can deliver durable outcomes across markets. That confidence is backed by capital: recent data show European deep-tech startups raised roughly €13 billion in 2025, with robotics and hardware leading the way.
One example of this change is the surge of new deep-tech funds closing large vehicles in Europe. Spanish firm Kembara recently secured a €750 million first close toward what could become a €1.25 billion growth fund dedicated to scaling deep-tech champions — a notable milestone given the tough fundraising climate.
Similarly, Paris-based VC daphni closed its latest daphni Blue fund at €260 million to turn Europe’s scientific strength into startups focused on environmental and societal challenges. On the earlier-stage side, Copenhagen-based The Footprint Firm closed its €76 million Footprint Fund I, targeting early-stage deep-tech ideas in the energy and climate sectors across Northern Europe.
🗓️ 0100 DACH Panel Spotlight: Deeptech as a Strategic Asset Class
From AI and robotics to biotech and advanced hardware, deeptech is increasingly viewed not just as a technology play, but as a strategic asset class capable of generating durable, defensible value over time. This panel is one of the key conversations at 0100 DACH 2026, unpacking what this means for venture capital.
Bringing together Daisy Cai (General Partner at B Capital Group), Igor De La Sota (Founder and General Partner at Cardumen Capital), Roland Dennert (Managing Partner at Cipio Partners), and Christian Noske (Partner at NGP Capital), the discussion will explore how investors across venture, growth equity, and private markets are approaching deeptech today.
🌍 Across the Ecosystem | Thoughts on DeepTech as an Asset Class
Venture capitalists, growth investors, limited partners, policymakers, and corporates are increasingly aligned on the opportunity deeptech represents: channeling long-term capital into technologies that can drive durable economic growth, industrial resilience, and strategic autonomy.
At the same time, market participants acknowledge that deeptech comes with its own set of challenges. Capital intensity, longer development cycles, regulatory complexity, and the scarcity of late-stage funding remain key constraints—particularly in Europe. Questions around fund size, ownership strategies, and how to support companies through the scale-up phase are now central to the debate. Below is a snapshot of how the discussion around deeptech as an asset class is evolving across the European venture ecosystem.
📄 Article | Closing Europe’s deep tech gender gap
A new EU-backed study highlights how Europe’s deep-tech gender investment gap remains wide and structurally embedded, with real consequences for the technologies the continent will be able to scale. Deep tech—spanning areas like AI, climate and energy systems, semiconductors, robotics, and biotech- is critical to Europe’s economic resilience, security, and industrial competitiveness.
Yet despite strong representation of women in research and science, that presence drops sharply once companies move into venture funding. Today, startups with at least one woman founder receive only a small share of venture capital, and the imbalance is even more pronounced in deep tech, where most funding flows to all-male founding teams.
📄 Article | 18 Deep Tech Startups from CEE You Should Keep an Eye On
Deep tech has emerged as one of the most resilient and strategically important segments of Europe’s startup ecosystem, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is increasingly central to that story. The CEE region reflects both the promise and the challenge of deep tech in Europe. It is home to strong research institutions, technical talent, and a growing pipeline of early-stage startups working on highly specialized technologies.
Many of these companies are still at the pre-seed or seed stage, building defensible IP and validating complex products that require significant upfront investment and longer timelines to revenue.