Welcome to the bi-weekly “Inside European Deep Tech” newsletter, compiled by Robin Wauters, founder of Profoundo and formerly founding editor and CEO of Tech.eu.

Can’t believe 42,000 of you already subscribed to this little hobby project of mine! 😮 

Let’s get to it for issue #2.

DeepSeek overload

There've been more hot takes on DeepSeek than Brussels bureaucrats trying to regulate AI before understanding it, but I guess I can’t not include something on the shiniest ‘new’ LLM on the market.

Who could have predicted such a shake-up in the first month of the new year already?

DeepSeek’s meteoric rise has very little to do with the EU or the European AI industry and its investors, even though some unsurprisingly try hard to make it so (you can always count on Sifted, on Sifted, Sifted and also on Sifted). The implications are and will pertain to the US, and the country the upstart hails from. And yes, probably good for us, users.

But sure, it also had a relatively predictable knock-on effect on the likes of ASML (they’ll be fine, at least for now), and AI companies like Axelera, Mistral and Aleph Alpha of course, but I agree with observers that it could (should) serve as - another - wake-up call for Europe alongside Stargate as the AI race continues. It’s still very early days, the balance shift in full effect for the long term, and the outcome unclear.

What is clear is that Italy’s data protection authority will always be quick to launch probes, as will Ireland’s. By the way, the EU is also ‘closely monitoring’, evidently, and British officials have commenced a probe as well.

Finally, pretty please with a cherry on top, let’s not call DeepSeek “Europe’s new TiKTok”.

Grazie.

A Competitiveness Compass for the EU

The European Commission adopted a "competitiveness compass", outlining actions it plans to undertake in the coming years to address the competitiveness gap highlighted by the Draghi report.

There have been more hot takes on said Compass than EU antitrust cases against American tech giants (I can do this all day) but as usual the proof will be in the pudding.

If you’ve read the Draghi report (technically titled ‘The future of European competitiveness’), or even just the summary 😉 , you’ll quickly realise that the compass indeed builds heavily on that report’s recommendations, translating them into tangible measures (to a degree).

Politico broke the thing down line by line, which makes it a great start to learn more.

The question is now: what happens when the compass/strategy and pronounced willingness to make change effectively makes contact with the real world?

And: will they ever find a half-decent graphic designer for this kind of stuff?

Much more to follow in future editions of this newsletter about the EU’s renewed (or reworded if you will) plans to simplify, decarbonise and “close the innovation gap” with a massive focus on deep tech, and its ‘EU Start-up and Scale-up Strategy’.

In the meantime, help the EU Inc movement reach its goal(s).

Must-Reads

• “Proposals to link up Oxford and Cambridge will add up to £78bn to the UK economy by 2035, the chancellor has claimed. Connecting the university cities could create "Europe's Silicon Valley", Rachel Reeves said in her speech in Oxfordshire.”

  » If and when you manage to read past those words, it gets fairly interesting. (BBC)

• “Inside the U.K.’s Bold Experiment in AI Safety”

  » More from the United Kingdom, but fascinating background piece. (Time)

• New Politics, New Rules, New Incentives. When succeeding in Deep Tech means navigating the quicksand of policy shifts.

  » (The Scenariost)

• More on Mistral: “Arthur Mensch is the public face of French AI champion Mistral, but another startup’s CEO has been critical to its $6 billion valuation”

  » (Bloomberg)

• “Deeptech SuperAngel VC” (GP at Silicon Roundabout Ventures) Francesco Perticarari is designing a VC fund in public - in 30 days.

• “The Great Reset: From Startups to What's Next”

  » Nicolas Colin is at it again, rebranding his newsletter/essays as Drift Signal.

• Who is following Pia Michel’s Grand Tour of Europe?

  » (LinkedIn)

Data, Research & Insights

• Hello Tomorrow revealed its “80 Game-Changing Deep Tech Startup Finalists”.

  » (Hello Tomorrow)

• European Innovation Council Accelerator: “What to expect in 2025”

  » (EIC Accelerator data & stats)

• Tech Tour, meanwhile, published the 2025 edition of its ‘Tech Tour Growth50 Listing’, featuring Europe’s top 50 growth companies set to become unicorns.

  » (Tech Tour)

• The definitive guide to Britain’s fastest-growing private tech companies from The Sunday Times.

• A catalogue to gather best ‘startup ecosystem’ practices from around the world​.

  » (ESNA)

• AI in the New Nordics: “In this article, we showcase the perspective from our early-stage strategy, mapping out the dynamic nexus of talent in "the New Nordics" and how we think this can lead to the genesis of multiple globally leading AI application companies.”

  » (Kinnevik)

Interesting Deals

• Neko Health, the AI-powered preventative healthcare startup co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, has secured $260 million in Series B funding at a $1.8 billion valuation.

  » (Maginative)

• ElevenLabs secured $180 million in a new funding round that triples the London-headquartered, Polish-founded voice cloning AI startup's valuation to $3.3 billion.

  » (Reuters)

• Alice & Bob, a Paris-based startup that is a pioneer in the area of cat qubit quantum architecture, has raised €100 million.

  » (TechCrunch)

• Eindhoven-based NXP, a semiconductor company building solutions for embedded applications, announced a €1 billion loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB).

  » (Silicon Canals)

• Global asset manager Algebris Investments launched Algebris Climatech, a new fund (target: €100 million) aimed at investing in climate and deep tech startups across the energy, materials, industrials, and food sectors.

  » (ESG Today)

• Quibim, a Valencia-born healthtech company focused on the use of imaging biomarkers for precision medicine, closed a $50 million Series A financing round.

  » (Inside AI News)

• Quantum-focused VC firm QDNL Participations has announced the first close of its new fund (target: €60 million), which significantly expands its vision to back early-stage quantum technology startups, wherever they are based.

  » (Quantum Insider)

• German robotics company Sereact raised €25 million in Series A funding.

  » (Tech.eu)

In other links

• ‘Europe is falling behind’: Cofounder of world’s best-funded quantum startup on why the region risks losing out in the sector

  » (Sifted)

• Latvia wants to become the European hub for hydrogen innovation

  » (Tech.eu)

• “15 European companies shortlisted for DIGITALEUROPES’s 2025 Future Unicorn Award”

  » (DIGITALEUROPE)

• David Dana is leaving the European Investment Fund after close to 15 years. His official role is (was) “Head of VC investments - Disruptive Tech & Innovation (deeptech)” at the EIF. No word yet on what’s next.

  » (LinkedIn)

• On that note, David Thévenon is departing Balderton Capital.

  » (LinkedIn)

• “How did Nordics become a hub for deep tech startups?”

  » (Tech Funding News)

• “The Royal Academy of Engineering has said.The academy has teamed up with Imperial College London and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to run a government-funded training scheme to help 22 early career investors become experts in the needs of applied science and cutting edge technology startups.”

  » (The Times)

• Open Letter: “102 cleantech start-ups, scale-ups, investors and ecosystems from across Europe are writing to express support for a strong and ambitious Clean Industrial Deal.”

  » (Cleantech for Europe)

• “Entrepreneur vs academic: Who makes the best leader of a spinout?”

  » (Global University Venturing)

• “Deep Dive: How La French Tech Grand Paris is Shaping Innovation in France’s Capital”

  » (The French Tech Journal)

• Women TechEU is a two-year EU-funded project funding and supporting women leading deep tech startup companies from Europe. Across the two years, the consortium will launch a total of four calls for applications.”

  » Call #3 Deadline: 17 March 2025

• “How Corporates And Startups Can Unlock Deep Tech’s Potential”

  » (Forbes)

• “DeepTech ACT offers an unique matchmaking platform & tailored resources to kickstart networking opportunities in DeepTech!”

  » (Acceleraction)

• “Why Switzerland might be the deep tech talent hub of tomorrow”

  » (HR Executive)

Interesting job openings

(Obviously there’s probably a bunch more relevant openings, feel free to send to me for. the next edition of this newsletter.)

• Startup Programs Manager and Director of Ecosystem & Events at Hello Tomorrow

• Head of the Venture Builder Unit at EPFL

Upcoming events in Europe (Q1 2025)

• 5-7 February — TechChill — Riga, Latvia 🇱🇻

• 20-21 February — Techarena — Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

• 26-27 February — AI Festival - Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

• 3-6 March — 4YFN (and MWC) — Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸 

• 13-14 March — Hello Tomorrow — Paris, France 🇫🇷 

• 20-21 March — START Summit — St. Gallen, Switzerland 🇨🇭 

• 25-26 March — Tech.eu Summit — London, UK 🇬🇧

• 27-28 March - SuperNova - Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

• Don’t you die on me now - “The strange reasons why people are more likely to die in the winter”

• Old article but on ‘the economics of unused gift cards’.

• A photographer visited McDonald’s in more than 55 countries.

• How a boy from the Bronx unearthed the workings of the Universe.