Northvolt falls, Project Europe rises, and pay close attention to the EU's plans with 'SUI'

Author

Robin Wauters
March 21, 2025

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

Greetings to the now 61,000+ subscribers of this newsletter - do provide feedback so I can improve it over time. You can also subscribe to this newsletter on LinkedIn by the way.

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 #5; there's a lot to cover.

Northvolt's collapse

Northvolt, the Swedish battery manufacturer once hailed as Europe's answer to Chinese battery dominance, recently filed for bankruptcy due to a combination of internal and external challenges.

Key factors contributing to its bankruptcy included overambitious expansion plans (and mismanagement thereof), production and delivery issues, coupled with escalating costs, funding shortfalls and a lack of increased government support in the face of equally increased competition.

These factors culminated in Northvolt's inability to meet its financial obligations, leading to its bankruptcy filing and highlighting the challenges faced by European companies in the competitive battery manufacturing industry.

Make sure to check out founder Peter Carlsson's LinkedIn post about the whole ordeal, and the knock-on effect of Northvolt's decline on Sweden's north and particularly the small town of Skelleftea.

I guess learning from failure is in order?

Or is it too early to call it a full-on failure?

Project Europe

On a much more positive note, Project Europe saw the light of day (and also just got the Times Square treatment apparently).

Kickstarted by 20VC, Adjacent and Point Nine Capital, backed by now more than 150 founders, and with a few partners already lined up, it's essentially an accelerator for young talent that wants to build some solid tech out of Europe.

More specifically, the initiative targets young innovators under the age of 25 who are tackling hard problems with technology-driven solutions. There are no formal requirements for education or prior funding; just a strong vision and a willingness to build in Europe.

Project Europe will invest out of a €10 million fund from the idea stage, supporting a cohort of 10 to 20 founders on an annual basis. The initial investment includes €200,000 in funding in exchange for 6.66% equity (if leading the round).

It's a super welcome initiative as far as I'm concerned, but of course there's gonna be criticism. For sure, they could have paid a bit more attention to the lack of diversity, but that's an industry problem they're not gonna solve on their own. If people want to start something new targeting only female founders under 25, who's stopping them?

The more the merrier.

Also, is it just me or did a lot of people gloss over the fact that there's a handy FAQ doc about Project Europe?

Building a unified European capital ecosystem

Haven't seen that much coverage of this out there, but it's pretty significant in my view.

The European Commission has adopted its strategy for the 'Savings and Investments Union', a key initiative to improve the way the EU financial system channels savings to what they call 'productive investments'.

Its fresh push for integration of the EU capital markets could free up investment from trillions of euros currently stashed in European savings accounts.

Up to about €10 trillion in idle bank deposits across the bloc, in fact.

As a reminder, Mario Draghi’s landmark report on competitiveness warned last year that the EU will need at least up to €800 billion per year by 2030 to stay competitive against the US and China.

Pay attention to how the 'SUI' plays out, because it will also have an effect on the European venture capital and private equity industry sooner rather than later.

If, of course, EU member states don't want to play ball.

Must-reads

Data, research & insights

  • Let's start with the big one even though I guess readers of this newsletter have read it twice top to bottom already. Dealroom and its partners recently released 'The European Deep Tech Report 2025'. Some coverage of the main findings that I would recommend can be found here, here and here.

  • Pitchbook: Europe’s defence-tech startups launch into new era of growth

  • To keep an eye on: the winners of the 2025 Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge

  • Also, 12 defence tech startups to watch in 2025 (according to VCs)

  • Better Mobility Trendreport 2025

  • The future of AI: 23 industry leaders on what's next in AI for startups

  • TOP 100: Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space

  • 100 days into the EU Commission: what’s next for tech?

  • Deal Flow 5.0: Five Things We (Orrick) Learned About European Tech Deal Terms in 2024

  • "In 2019 the Deeptech Plan, operated by Bpifrance for hashtag#France2030, was launched to accelerate the transfer of breakthrough technologies and foster a strong deeptech ecosystem in France. Today, the results speak for themselves."

  • No early-stage VCs, no economy: Cottonwood’s Alain le Loux on Fund IV, early-stage deep tech startups, science IP-based innovation

  • French tech firms ‘need €30bn in next five years’ to compete

  • LocalGlobe’s Emma Phillips on backing unconventional founders and the future of AI-driven work

Interesting deals

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

Plenty of other places to stay informed on money moves.

Though in the next edition I'll do something on Q1 2025.

  • Europe's start-ups are using AI to reimagine business models

  • The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has selected six additional 'AI Factories' in the EU. This follows the first selection of seven AI Factories in December 2024. Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia will host the newly selected AI Factories, supported by a combined national and EU investment of around €485 million.

  • Faculty AI’s defence chief on the promise and perils of military tech: ‘You think about it all the time’

  • Irish startup Equal1 has unveiled the world’s first quantum computer that runs on a hybrid quantum-classical silicon chip

  • Invest-NL, Techleap and TNO join forces to strengthen the Dutch and European tech industry

  • Norrsken launched a Brussels hub to help climate tech and sustainability startups access EU’s corridors of power

  • Startup combines physics with AI to discover new green materials ’10x faster’

  • "At Speedinvest, we believe that cutting-edge research deserves the best possible pathway to real-world impact. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Technische Universität Wien to launch a new initiative to fuel Austria’s university spinout ecosystem."

  • Backing science's boldest breakthroughs, a profile of Empirical Ventures

  • Spain wants to crack down on artificial images - aka deepfakes

  • A move to “supercharge” Scotland’s nascent deep tech start-up scene has been unveiled

  • One of the first Blackwell supercomputers in the Netherlands has been fired up at a datacentre in Rotterdam for medical AI applications.

Upcoming events in Europe for your calendar

The scrolled-all-the-way-down extras

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