10 November 2025: EU seeks backers for €5 billion critical tech fund; a Playbook for 'Sciencepreneurship'; How Google fooled Brussels; and more

Welcome to the bi-weekly “Inside European Deep Tech” newsletter, compiled by Robin Wauters, founder of boutique communications agency Profoundo, COO and board member of the European Startup Network, co-driver at EU–INC and formerly founding editor and CEO of Tech.eu.

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Periodic reminder that I'm always up for a chat about how to upscale your communication and media strategy, so do hit me up if you want to have a conversation.

Must-reads

• Europe’s Missing Links

• Europe in Talks with backers for €5 billion critical tech fund

• How Google fooled Brussels: the tech giant’s playbook exposed

• Europe’s AI startups are increasingly being targeted for M&A

• How to build better European tech policy

• Oil built Norway’s past, can climate tech build its future?

• Europe’s plan to ditch US tech giants is built on open source — and it's gaining steam

• Commission undecided on legal shape of EU's startup reform

• Axelera launches Europa AIPU: new benchmark for AI chips

• Europeans, you need Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley doesn’t need you

• Where you build is who you are: the ElevenLabs story

• Is Europe ready to compete in AI?

• Europe’s startups are growing up: what comes next?

Insights: data, research, interviews and profiles

• McKinsey: Europe's deep-tech engine could spur $1 trillion in economic growth

• Rise for Europe: "Playbook - Sciencepreneurship & Tech Transfer" - From breakthrough research to European tech champions

• How EU countries have spent €56 billion of pandemic stimulus on R&D

• Bessemer: "Roadmap: European resilience"

• Digital & Defence Innovation report // 28DIGITAL

• EIC Accelerator receives almost 1,000 companies competing for 2025 cut off

• Fresh US capital offers lifeline for European GPs - PitchBook

• Scaling Deep Tech in Food: What Investors Look for | Deep Tech Catalyst

• The biggest European cleantech deals in H1 2025

• How to build a $100bn company in Europe, with Sequoia's Luciana Lixandru - Startup Europe

• Q4 2025 PitchBook Analyst Note: The Rise of European Defence Tech

• Lithuania’s tech ecosystem: Founders and executives discuss its evolution

• An M&A goldrush is coming for European AI. Startups beware

• EUVC Newsletter | From Deep Tech to Purpose: Europe’s Next Decade in Motion

• CuspAI tops Sifted’s ranking of 100 standout AI startups in Europe

• Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory

• Vilnius is a nice, green place to live—and it’s turning that into a competitive advantage for its economy | Fortune

• ⚛️ Six Potential Scenarios of the Quantum Future

• Building Europe's Answer to SpaceX | Helene Huby, The Exploration Company - YouTube - Balderton Capital

• Europe’s AI ecosystem: Rapid growth and rising global ambitions

• What are the challenges of a deep-tech career in 2025?

• 10+ European deeptech disruptors you need to know in 2025 — TFN

• The EIC Accelerator in 2026. BIG CHANGES in the selection process!

Opinions worth reading

• From custom to commodity: Space Is undergoing Its own industrial evolution

• How Emerging Technologies For Planetary Health Could Cement Change - The Innovator

• John Collison of Stripe: Ireland is going backwards. Here’s how to get it moving

• Is the Startup Economy Engine broken?

• Why Business Angels hold the key to European resilience and competitiveness

• French Tech Funding Wire Oct 27: Why Grenoble Might Be France's Most Underrated Startup Powerhouse

• "It's Easier to Be Born Global than to Become Global": An Interview with Martin Mignot

• Comment | Scotland's Deep Tech Opportunity

• British Sovereign Capital: replacing the BBB & tax incentives to promote scale and sovereignty

• Investors must learn to embrace innovation, says Philippe Tibi

Major European deep tech startup and scale-up news

• Germany-based remote driving startup Vay could grab up to $410M from Singapore’s Grab

• EnduroSat secures $104M to expand production of advanced small satellites

• Rumble to buy German cloud computing firm Northern Data for $767M — TFN

• AI startup PhysicsX to raise up to $100m from Nvidia

• Buyout Giant Vista Buys Nexthink Stake From Permira in Bet on AI

• Electric boat maker X Shore sinks after raising over €100m from high-profile investors

• European AI rising star Nexos.ai raises €30M to unlock enterprise AI adoption

• AI drug synthesizer Chemify raises $50 million

• EnduroSat secures $104M to expand production of advanced small satellites

• Octonomy raises $20m seed to simplify enterprise support and slash hallucination rates

• Pasqal secures strategic investment from LG Electronics to unlock real-world quantum advantages for product innovation

Major European deep tech investor news

• EU launches €5bn fund to back European scale-ups in AI, quantum, and semiconductors – Private Equity Insights

• Lifeline raises $470 million for major European tech startup fund

• Armilar’s new €120 million fund targets DeepTech and digital transformation ventures in Spain and Portugal

• Sequoia launches two early-stage funds, says Europe's founder pool “never been stronger”

• Baltic VC Balnord nabs €70M to build the next wave of European deep tech unicorns

• Lakestar calls time on generalist venture funds

• Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized venture capital firm with two decades of water-sector leadership, announced the first close of its Global Water Fund II at €60 million

• Polytechnique Ventures raises €21m fund to back university founders

• Europe's founders unite: new Fund aims to build Europe’s first trillion-dollar tech giants

In other links

• EU supports the clean transition with over €358 million of investment in 132 new projects across Europe

• From Seed to sovereignty: HV Capital’s expanding mandate across Europe

• Industry calls for €2B photonics programme in future Horizon Europe

• Commission confirms Chips Act update for beginning of 2026 | Euractiv

• Ukraine mulls plan for rebuilding its science sector

• Innovation Hub investment announced as part of £500 million Oxford-Cambridge growth package

• James Dancer Verified: "Oracle founder Larry Ellison will now invest over $15bn in Oxford, putting the city in the top ranks of global science and innovation in AI. From an original plan to invest $1bn in the city, the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford is announcing t"

• Europe Urged to Mobilize Private Capital for Quantum Competitiveness

• From lab to market: Scaling lessons from EIC Scaling Club deep tech founders

• VCs urge founders to fundraise before AI bubble bursts | Sifted

• France invites citizens to invest in defence tech

• Research community welcomes plan for ‘lottery’ awards in Horizon Europe, if done right

• MITS Capital: “Build What Warfighters Actually Need”

• Finland’s Deep Tech and Innovation Ecosystem Connects with Indian Expertise through the “Find Your Superposition” Initiative

• EU countries resist launch of special cybersecurity rules for satellites | Euractiv

• The deep-tech founder growing the thermoelectric materials sector

• Defence startups ‘getting their foot' in the door with Italian primes…

• 👻 French Tech Wire: France Spooked By Fears Of Great Founder Migration

• Financing Europe’s next tech champions | LinkedIn

• Italian LPs poised to invest more in VC | Sifted

• The European Innovation Council Board welcomes EIC expansion under FP10 proposal

• Edinburgh firm Sofant unveils energy-saving beamforming chip for next-generation wireless systems

• Europe rides the robotics wave: ‘The research here is crazy’ | Sifted

• Fintechs dabble in defence deals | Sifted

• Can SET University become Ukraine’s founder factory?

• Commission floats new EU-wide digital procurement portal

• Portugal Builds Future With Revamped Port and Data Center for Nvidia

• strike drone startup Stark’s military test failures could have ‘damag…

• Commissioner urges broader access to EU-wide registration system for new companies

• Commission approves €700 million Spanish scheme to support cleantech manufacturing capacity, in line with Clean Industrial Deal objectives

• Anthropic’s European hiring spree continues with Paris and Munich office openings

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• Brussels feels like a city preparing for war

• The AI Wildfire Is Coming. It's Going to be Very Painful and Incredibly Healthy.

• The world's most—and least—powerful passports

• Are You Less Productive Than You Think?

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