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European Deep Tech's massive gender issue, the EU's (Clean) Industrial Deal, hard acceleration and accelerator data, and more

Author

Robin Wauters
March 08, 2025

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

Greetings to the new 57,800+ subscribers of this newsletter - do provide feedback so I can improve it over time.

Also, apologies for missing the beat already, it took me 3 weeks to send this newsletter instead of 2, because reasons. But will try to stick to bi-weekly from now on!

A big thank you also to those who've already reached out for information on sponsorship of this newsletter - much appreciated but too early for that. That said, I'm always up for a chat about how to upscale the communications strategies of European deep tech startups, scale-ups and investors, so do hit me up if you want to have a chat about that.

Let’s get to it for issue #4; there's a lot to cover.

EU unveils Clean Industrial Deal

The European Commission recently presented a raft of measures and recommendations intended to boost European industries and cut their greenhouse gas emissions. At the heart of the push is the Clean Industrial Deal, a rebranded version of the Green Deal.

Not everyone agree it's all that clean, though.

Someone used the word 'greenwashing'.

Others welcomed the deal.

Eye-catching nonetheless, particularly the €100 billion in short-term relief to supercharge climate-friendly manufacturing in the EU that could swell to €400 billion thanks to the private sector according to EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra - but otherwise not that much in there that's highly relevant to European deep tech startups, scale-ups and investors.

(I wrote those words before VdL announced a 'Rearm Europe Plan' that she said could see member states mobilise up to €800 billion to finance a massive ramp-up in defence spending.)

European deep tech's gaping gender equity problem

As it's International Women's Day, worth highlighting this some more:

According to the EU-funded GENDEX project, women lead just 22% of European deep tech companies. In 2024, female founders raised €10.2 billion, less than a quarter of European venture capital (VC) funding, per Pitchbook’s All In report about women in VC.

Data from the GENDEX report also shows that women-led deep tech companies have generated over 11% of the total value raised at non-IPO exits in the past decade — a disproportionately low figure.

However, these firms account for just 0.6% of such deals, highlighting the outsized value created when women take the lead. Achieving greater representation of women-led companies at the exit stage — both IPO and non-IPO — over the past decade would have unlocked an estimated €198.8 billion in additional value, GENDEX found.

On top of that, women in European tech generally earn 26% less money than men.

The 71 new EIC Accelerator companies

The European Innovation Council (EIC) selected 71 tech companies for funding, combining grants and equity, following the last 2024 EIC Accelerator cut-off in October.

Emmanuele Angione, Managing Partner at Lira, shared a comprehensive overview of all the data for 2024 and a recap of the last cut-off of the year.

He also followed it up later with cumulative data. Must-follow.

Speaking of acceleration in Europe...

Dealroom has co-published Accelerating Europe, a report giving an overview of the status of European growth in relation to innovation, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. The 76-page report points out challenges and gives a positive outlook on Europe’s potential to grow more tech companies.

It's a must-read report.

Dealroom followed it up with another interesting report that showed a €12 billion investment made up of EU grants and Framework Programmes (such as Horizon Europe) has helped generate €520 billion in total company value.

But.

Of the total €225 billion deployed through these the EU's innovation programmes, only approximately €12 billion (5%) went directly to startups.

Yeah, well.

Must-reads

Data, research & insights

Interesting deals

Skipping new funding deals and new funds to focus on shipping. ;)

Plenty of other places to stay informed on money moves.

Upcoming events in Europe for your calendar

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

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