Good morning {{first_name}},

The Stone Age. The Bronze Age. The Iron Age. The Silicon Age.
Every major leap in civilisation started with a new material.

Today, the next one may already be forming.

Right now, Brussels is preparing an Advanced Materials Act to accelerate the jump from lab to industry. The goal is clear: strengthen Europe’s industrial competitiveness, reduce dependencies on critical inputs and accelerate deployment across sectors from energy and electronics to mobility and aerospace.

Space is becoming one of the fastest testbeds for new materials. The environments that space-bound systems must endure are among the most extreme imaginable. And so: No hypersonic flight without ultra-high-temperature ceramics. No next-generation satellites without radiation-resistant semiconductors. No reusable launch systems without radically lighter composites.

The European Space Agency now runs an Advanced Materials Industry Accelerator, supporting startups developing materials for satellites and extreme environments. We’ve highlighted Europe's Top 5 startups developing advanced materials ready to fly beyond. 

But also on Earth, new matter matters: The European Research Council recently mapped more than 1,500 projects worth €2.37B. We've got the five key takeaways from this report for you.

Also in this issue:

  • The Leap: Martin Schilling's 10 highlights for the upcoming DTM26, from 300 Guardians and a Sovereignty Summit to humanoid robots and fireside chats with Europe's boldest founders.

  • Gift to the community: Win a copy of The Builder’s Guide to the Tech Galaxy by Martin Schilling and Thomas Klugkist.

Enjoy the read!

P.S.: We are getting ready for DTM26  — are you? In just a few weeks, Deep Tech Momentum returns to Berlin (20–21 May), and Europe’s Deep Tech builders will get their chance to meet partners who can deploy and scale their technologies. Spots are getting rare, and the early-bird discount runs out soon, so be quick to secure your tickets now!

THE LEAP | BY MARTIN SCHILLING

Back to the Future of European Deep Tech: My 10 DTM26 Highlights

Dear all,

After months of preparation, our team is gearing up for Deep Tech Momentum 2026 in Berlin (20–21 May). We stay true to our mission: strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty by accelerating the commercialisation of Deep Tech.

Here are 10 things that I’m particularly excited about.

  1. 300 Guardians of European Deep Tech
    Over the past months, we sent thousands of physical letters, made cold calls until the phones went hot, and travelled across events to convince leading corporate innovators and public-sector customers for Deep Tech and AI to come to Berlin. Close to 300 “Guardians” have now committed to spend time in 1:1 meetings with Deep Tech & AI innovators at DTM26. Their goal: deploy next-generation Deep Tech and AI to boost innovation, cut costs, and unlock new revenue. For founders looking for commercial traction, this is likely one of the most concentrated gatherings of real customers in Europe this year.

  2. The Sovereignty Summit
    Historically, governments played a decisive role in scaling Deep Tech. In the 1960s, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense purchased up to 70% of global integrated circuit output, helping create Silicon Valley. Europe excels at research but struggles with commercialisation. At this summit, 50 founders and corporate CXOs will meet EU and national policymakers to discuss how the state can become both a stronger anchor customer and a driver of regulatory simplification. Topics include AI gigafactories, space-based defence, fusion and next-generation fission, batteries and critical raw materials, and quantum computing. Participants include Karsten Wildberger, Dorothee Bär, Robert Viola, and Kerstin Jorna, alongside many of Europe’s leading innovators.

  3. AI for Productivity Summit
    More than $250B was invested in AI in 2024, yet many enterprises still struggle to show a measurable P&L impact. This invite-only summit aims to change that. It brings together 100 Guardians and innovators for enterprise AI roundtables on topics such as AI-accelerated software engineering, predictive maintenance and quality inspection, energy optimisation and digital twins, customer service automation, supply-chain optimisation, and legal & compliance automation. The goal: kick off 100 new AI and Deep Tech collaborations in a single afternoon. Spots are strictly limited.

  4. Venture Clienting & CVC Summit
    Partnering with startups — venture clienting — remains underused despite being one of the fastest ways for companies to adopt new technology. This summit that we host with our partner 27pilots brings together Europe’s leading corporate and public-sector innovation leaders to exchange market-specific lessons for more effective venture clienting. Topics include grid innovation, defence startup adoption, and factory automation, to push venture clienting closer to the boardroom.

  5. Deep Tech Week Berlin
    Together with Andrew Cote, our friend and founder of the global Deep Tech Week, we’re co-hosting Deep Tech Week Berlin, starting 18 May. It is a decentralised, open format where partners host their own events across the city. The ambition: turn Berlin for one week into a global hub for AI and Deep Tech. The week will culminate — somewhat inevitably — in a humanoid robotics party.

  6. DTM100
    The DTM100 pitch competition gives Europe’s most promising (pre)seed Deep Tech and AI founders a stage in front of top investors. I’ve seen founders arrive at DTM struggling to raise and leave with multiple term sheets they never imagined possible. This year, the jury includes Lakestar, Earlybird, Elaia, DCVC, NATO Innovation Fund, redalpine, Project A, OTB Ventures, IQ Capital, APEX Ventures, and Vsquared, among others.

  7. Signals from the Frontline
    Together with the NATO Innovation Fund, McKinsey, and several friends from the armed forces, we are launching a format to translate military needs into early signals for innovators. The objective: more and faster commercial contracts for Europe’s leading DefTech and dual-use innovators. Around 50 NATO capability planners with field experience, defence primes, and innovators will work on topics such as undersea infrastructure protection, drone and aerial defence, cost-effective precision strike, and space-enabled situational awareness in a sequence of invite-only workshops. We will also host a delegation of armed forces from Ukraine.

  8. Unicorn Founders & CXOs on Stage
    I will again host several fireside chats, including conversations with Herbert Diess (Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Infineon Technologies) and Frank Appel (Chairman, Deutsche Telekom). We’ll also hear from some of Europe’s most prominent Deep Tech founders, including Hélène Huby (The Exploration Company), David Reger (NEURA Robotics), Francesco Sciortino (Proxima Fusion), and Jan Oberhauser (n8n).

  9. Deep Tech Award
    The State of Berlin, together with Franziska Giffey, will host the Berlin Deep Tech Award as part of Deep Tech Momentum on 20 May — another signal that the city is stepping up its support for the Deep Tech ecosystem.

  10. Deep Tech Exhibition
    And finally: the exhibition. You will be able to sit in futuristic vehicles, enter a space capsule, explore a fusion reactor simulator, visit a high-tech mine in VR, interact with drones, and shake hands with robots. Deep Tech — literally — you can touch. If you have a Deep Tech product worth showcasing, this is the place to be.

If you want to get involved in any of these formats, feel free to reach out ([email protected]). And: mark 20–21 May in Berlin in your calendar  — preferably before the robots take over the networking.

With hope to see everyone who reads this at DTM26 in Berlin,
Martin

Deep Tech OPEN | ADVANCED MATERIALS

Europe’s Top 5 Advanced Materials Startups for Aerospace & Space | Seed to Series A ($1.7 - 30m)

High Temperature Material Systems (HTMS) | Bristol, United Kingdom

  • Technology: Advanced Ceramic Matrix Composites capable of operating in environments up to approximately 1400°C

  • Customers: HTMS is working with automotive and battery manufacturers, as well as Cranfield University and other research institutes.

  • Use cases: Applicable for high-temperature structural components, aerospace propulsion systems, and industrial high-heat environments.

  • Funding: £1.3M funding round in October 2025 led by the British Business Bank’s Midlands Engine Investment Fund II and the South West Investment Fund. Other investors include SFC Capital, DeepTech Labs, the US venture fund Plug and Play and angel investors.

  • Why it matters: Ceramic Matrix Composites are increasingly essential for next-generation propulsion systems and high-temperature aerospace components. Scaling production within Europe is a strategic industrial priority.

➔ The founders Dr. Danilo Di Salvo and Dr. Richard Grainger met when working for Rolls-Royce.

Danish Graphene | Vejle, Denmark 

  • Technology: Graphene-enhanced thermal adhesives designed to improve heat dissipation in high-performance electronics.

  • Customers: Projects supported through European Space Agency commercialisation initiatives.

  • Use cases: Material can be used in thermal management in satellites, electronics cooling for space instrumentation or high-performance imaging systems in orbit

  • Funding: Seed round of £2.5M raised in 2023, led by West Hill Capital, following funding from the European Space Agency.

  • Why it matters: Thermal management remains one of the most persistent engineering challenges in space systems. Even small improvements in heat transfer materials can significantly increase satellite reliability and lifespan.

➔ Danish Graphene was established in 2020, rooted in cutting-edge research from Aarhus University.

Uplift360 | Bristol, United Kingdom

  • Technology: Chemical regeneration of advanced composite materials, including carbon fibre, aramid fibres, and hybrid laminates, producing high-quality recycled aerospace feedstock.

  • Customers: Collaborations include projects involving Rolls-Royce, Leonardo, and Babcock, including the recycling of composite material from Eurofighter components.

  • Use cases: Enabling circular supply chains for aerospace composites by reusing recovered high-performance fibres in new components, and reducing the need for virgin composite materials.

  • Funding: €7.4M seed round announced in February 2026, including investment from the NATO Innovation Fund.

  • Why it matters: Advanced composites are expensive and supply-constrained. Technologies that recover high-grade material feedstock could significantly strengthen resilience in aerospace supply chains.

Arceon | Delft, Netherlands

  • Technology: Ceramic Matrix Composites (C/C-SiC) designed for extreme thermal environments, including ultra-high-temperature structural materials

  • Customers: Material testing campaigns conducted in collaboration with European space agencies and research programs.

  • Use cases: Could be used for thermal protection systems, re-entry vehicle components, rocket propulsion components or leading edges for hypersonic vehicles

  • Funding: In 2025, SecFund, established by the Dutch Ministry of Defence, and Dutch early-stage VC Tenzing Alpha invested an undisclosed amount, following a seed round in 2024.

  • Why it matters: Materials capable of withstanding temperatures above 2000°C are critical for hypersonic flight and atmospheric re-entry. Europe has strong research capabilities in this field, but limited industrial production capacity. Startups like Arceon aim to close that gap.

➔ Arceon was founded by TU Delft alumni.

Space Forge | Cardiff, United Kingdom

  • Technology: In-space manufacturing of advanced semiconductor and crystal materials using microgravity environments to improve material quality.

  • Customers: Partnerships across the space and semiconductor ecosystems.

  • Use cases: Made for high-efficiency semiconductor materials, radiation-resistant electronics for satellites, and next-generation power electronics.

  • Funding: £22.6M Series A raised in 2025, supported by investors including the NATO Innovation Fund, World Fund, NSSIF and British Business Bank.

  • Why it matters: Manufacturing materials in orbit could enable crystal structures and semiconductor performance that cannot be achieved under Earth’s gravity. If successful, it could open an entirely new layer of the space industrial economy.

➔ Space Forge is using space-derived crystal seeds to grow ultra-high quality semiconductor substrates on Earth.

THE PULSE

The Strategic Frontier: Europe’s Advanced Materials Push

Source: Advanced Materials: ERC Frontier Research for a Competitive, Sustainable Europe, prepared by the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA)

In February 2026, the European Research Council (ERC) published a major mapping of Europe’s advanced materials research. The report analyses 1,503 ERC-funded projects and their industrial potential. 

It reads less like a research review—and more like an early signal of where the next deep-tech industrial wave could emerge.

Here are the five most important takeaways from the report “Advanced Materials: ERC Frontier Research for a Competitive, Sustainable Europe”:

  1. A major European research priority
    Between 2014 and 2023, the ERC funded 1,503 advanced materials projects worth a total of €2.37 billion, involving 1,397 researchers across 29 countries. The field represents ~13% of all ERC grants and 12% of total funding, underlining its strategic importance for Europe’s technology base.

  2. Three sectors dominate: health, electronics, energy
    Research is heavily concentrated in health (36.5%), advanced electronics (36.5%), and energy (19%), reflecting the role of advanced materials in medical technologies, next-generation chips and electronics, and clean-energy systems.

  3. Europe is betting on semiconductors, polymers and nano-materials
    Key material classes include:
    – Compound semiconductors
    – Bio-derived polymers
    – Carbon-based materials (e.g. graphene)
    – Hybrid composites
    – Dimensionally-defined nanomaterials such as quantum dots and nanowires, which enable breakthroughs in electronics, sensing, energy storage and advanced manufacturing

  4. Aerospace and mobility depend on next-generation structural materials
    A major research cluster focuses on mechanical and structural materials designed to be lighter, stronger and more durable — critical for aerospace, transport and infrastructure systems, where performance gains directly translate into efficiency and safety improvements.

  5. AI is accelerating materials discovery
    Artificial intelligence is transforming materials science by enabling data-driven discovery and inverse design, allowing researchers to predict new materials with specific optical, electronic or mechanical properties and dramatically accelerate the traditional design–make–test cycle.

DTM OPPORTUNITIES

👩🏻‍💻 Webinar | EIC Accelerator 2026: The Key Changes Deep Tech Founders Can't Afford to Miss

The EIC Accelerator has been overhauled for 2026 — and if you're a Deep Tech founder, you'll want to know what's changed. Our partners at Zaz Ventures, Europe's leading EIC funding consultancy, are hosting a free one-hour webinar covering the key updates to Europe's flagship €2.5M grant + €10M equity programme, plus EIC Transition, EIC STEP Scale-Up (€50M+), and the EU Innovation Fund.

The session is open to Deep Tech startups and investors only. Afterwards, you can book a free 1-on-1 with the Zaz Ventures team for tailored funding advice.

➔ Register here.

⏱️ The Clock Is Ticking for DTM26!

Momentum is building fast for Deep Tech Momentum 2026 and a few doors are about to close.

  • The Guardian of European Deep Tech program is nearly full: 285 of 300 spots are already taken. That means Europe’s most relevant enterprise leaders — with real deployment budgets — will be in the room looking for partnerships with the continent’s most ambitious Deep Tech and AI startups.

➔ If you’re a senior operator, innovation lead, or corporate builder shaping Europe’s technological edge, this is where you belong. To join the circle helping turn Europe’s Deep Tech breakthroughs into industrial reality, apply now!

  • At the same time, the DTM100 Pitch Competition is filling quickly. Half the slots are already gone, and the Top 15 teams will take the main stage to compete across six strategic markets, from defence and space to industrial AI and frontier infrastructure.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • Deep Tech Momentum 2026

  • When: 20–21 May 2026

  • Where: Wilhelm Studios, Berlin

➔ Secure your ticket now before the early-bird pricing ends.

ECOSYSTEM GIFT

The Hard Part: Scaling What You Started

Every founder loves the zero-to-one story.
The late nights. The first prototype. The first customer who actually pays.

But what comes after that moment, when a startup has to turn into a real company, is where things usually get complicated.

This is the part where you just desperately need this book: The Builder’s Guide to the Tech Galaxy. Deep Tech Momentum’s Founder and CEO, Martin Schilling, together with Thomas Klugkist, distil lessons from 100+ operators behind companies like Airbnb, Klarna, Salesforce, and Zalando into a practical scaling manual.

Instead of startup mythology, it offers 99 tactical building blocks, like: 

  • How to design leadership teams

  • Define a North Star metric

  • Structure operating models

  • Scale without losing momentum

➔ We’re giving away one copy to the beloved DTM community. If you'd like it on your desk, simply reply to this email with “GALAXY”.

Last Week’s Winner: Congratulations to Robert Gassemie on winning a copy of the book Abundance: How We Build a Better Future.

Thank you for reading this far. Here are two ways to grow closer to the Deep Tech Now community:

  1. Become a Guardian of European Deep Tech: Are you a senior leader seeking commercial partnerships with Europe’s leading Deep Tech startups and SMEs? Successful applicants join Deep Tech Momentum’s Guardian network, receiving complimentary VIP access to our flagship event in May. Apply here.

  2. Share the newsletter. Forward it to someone who’d enjoy it. They can subscribe here.

— Isabelle and Martin
Co-Founders, DTM

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