Good morning {{first_name}},
AI is everywhere.
It’s no longer just something that lives on screens, generating text, images, or code. It’s moving beyond the digital layer and showing up in the real world: in pharma, where it helps discover new drugs, or in mobility and aerospace, where it accelerates the development of safer, lighter, better batteries.
It’s tearing down frontiers between branches.
In this week’s Deep Tech Now, we show you how AI is leaving the screen and reshaping the physical world:
Martin’s column explores how true breakthroughs often emerge when disciplines collide and boundaries are boldly crossed.
We highlight the top five seed-stage startups proving this thesis in Europe, using AI to reinvent material discovery—from sustainable chemicals to next-gen catalysts.
Bain’s Tech Report 2025 warns that even the world’s most resilient tech giants are being transformed as AI seeps into their operations. We break down the key takeaways on whether AI will disrupt the industry's most valuable players.
Enjoy the read!
THE LEAP | BY MARTIN SCHILLING
The Age of Intersectoral Innovation
One of Curie’s mobile units used by the French Army | Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département Estampes et Photographie
Dear all,
It was the winter of 1914 when a strange new vehicle began appearing near the French front lines in WWI — a small, rumbling car wired with coils, glass tubes, and an improvised laboratory hidden beneath a canvas. At its wheel was Marie Curie, navigating mud and shellfire in her mobile X-ray clinic, the “Petite Curie.” With it, surgeons could finally see shrapnel inside wounded soldiers instead of searching blindly by touch. I love this example because Marie Curie had the courage to cross disciplines: physics (ionising radiation), chemistry (radioactive elements), and materials science (radiation-safe plates). She showed how innovation happens when disciplines collide.
We are currently curating a Defence Innovation Summit at the Munich Security Conference in February, and we see this same multidisciplinary magic every day when we scout next-generation defence and dual-use startups. They leverage intersectoral innovation — the surprising power that emerges when disciplines once treated as separate begin to merge.
One example is ARX Robotics, which builds unmanned ground vehicles that merge robotics hardware, autonomy software, payload engineering, and legacy-vehicle retrofits. Anduril is another example that fuses AI-driven sensing, aerospace and robotics engineering, and multimodal sensors to build autonomous defence systems like counter-drone platforms.
We see similarly exciting examples in the materials space. Dunia Innovations is one of my favourites: they are building one of Europe’s first self-driving labs for discovering new energy and industrial materials. By combining an autonomous lab with a materials AI platform to uncover new chemical catalysts, they are a great team to watch.
A final example of cross-disciplinary creativity came last week from a totally unexpected source. I had a wonderful dinner with a Member of the European Parliament who has dedicated his professional life to shaping innovation policy in Europe, including the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) and the successor to Horizon Europe, which will invest hundreds of billions into Deep Tech in the years to come. He organises literature festivals where leaders of startups and public agencies read their favourite books on stage to convey their message. It made me wonder–could we also blend literature and Deep Tech on our stages? If you have a creative idea beyond the usual pitches for our stages or exhibitions, hit us up.
Wishing you a great week, with the courage to unite and cross as many disciplines as possible,
Martin
VENTURE CLIENTING CHRONICLES
Arno Baltruschat — Co-Lead OTTO DOCK 6 & Expert Venture Client Management — OTTO
Arno Baltruschat (on the right), Co-Lead of OTTO DOCK 6, Venture Client Unit of Otto Group in Hamburg, drives transformation across the Otto Group by advancing venture clienting, exploring the potential of AI, and shaping modern co-leadership through continuous learning and collaboration.
In which Deep Tech fields are you actively seeking startup collaborations right now?
Advanced AI & Data – foundation models, decision intelligence, computer vision, and optimisation for pricing, logistics, and fraud
Climate & Sustainability – technologies that reduce emissions and resource use across the value chain (e.g, optimisation, carbon intelligence, new climate-relevant materials)
Robotics Systems – warehouse and last-mile automation, perception, and control systems.
How do you usually identify and select promising startup partners?
We use venture clienting as our overall framework, meaning we don’t start from investing in startups but from becoming an early, strategic customer for the right solutions. When selecting partners, we look at four things:
Strategic & use-case fit with a concrete challenge
Product & tech maturity, including security and integration feasibility
Speed: can they execute fast with us in a corporate environment?
A clear venture client setup: pilot with sharp KPIs and a realistic path to scale into the core business. If we don’t see that path to impact from day one, we usually don’t start the collaboration.
What’s your top advice for startups aiming to partner with your company?
My top advice: think like a solution partner, not like someone pitching for funding. Start from a very concrete business problem you can solve for us, and we, as the Venture Client Unit, will provide you with details. Presenting ideally with 1–2 sharp use cases in retail or e-commerce and a clear KPI you want to move.
Come enterprise-ready: have answers on security, data protection, and integration, and be honest about where your product is today versus your roadmap.
Finally, what I personally love is a focused pilot plan. What we do in the first 90 days, how we measure success, and how we would scale if it works. If we can see that path to impact together, it’s usually the start of a very good collaboration.
What’s one life experience, habit, and book that has shaped how you approach open innovation?
Co-founding my own startup taught me very directly what founders need from corporates: speed, clarity, and real customer value.
A regular habit that still helps me a lot is ongoing conversations with VCs and startup teams - they keep me close to how opportunities are actually evaluated and scaled.
Playing to Win shows how to use the strategy choice cascade to turn vague innovation ambitions into sharp choices about where to play and how to win. If I had to name just one strategy book, it would be this one.
If you could put up a billboard at every major airport in Europe, what would it say?
"We Can Still Be World Champions."
(The line is by Rafael Laguna de la Vera and Thomas Ramge, who wrote about it on LinkedIn on November 7, 2025.)
➔ Arno Baltruschat is part of our DTM Guardian programme. Are you a corporate decision-maker with a mandate to innovate? Scroll down to apply and join your peers.
DEEP TECH OPEN | AI & ADVANCED MATERIALS
Europe’s Top 5 AI in Materials Discovery Startups | Pre-seed and Seed Stage (€2-11m)
ExoMatter | Munich, Germany
Technology: AI-powered materials screening and R&D platform integrating machine learning with scientific/quantum modeling for inorganic materials
Use cases: Accelerated identification of high-performance, sustainable materials tuned for performance, cost, and emissions
Funding: €1.7m pre-seed funding led by Vanagon Ventures and other investors.
Why it matters: Democratizes access to advanced materials R&D and reduces costly trial-and-error research workflows
➔ ExoMatter is a spin-off of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
PhaseTree | Copenhagen, Denmark
Technology: Physics-first AI platform coupling computational simulations with machine learning and automation to accelerate sustainable materials discovery
Customers: The company is currently working with some of the world’s largest battery, automobile, and steel producers
Use cases: Rapid modelling, testing, and optimization of next-gen materials with physics-guided AI
Why it matters: Shortens materials development timelines from decades to years using physics-informed AI
Entalpic | Paris, France
Technology: Generative AI platform combining predictive models, graph neural networks, literature/patent mining, and quantum simulations to design new materials and chemical pathways
Customers: By starting with catalysts for ammonia production (critical for fertilizers), Entalpic is tapping a $100B high-impact market, operating on a single, century-old process that accounts for more than 1% of global CO2 emissions. Further, all carbon-intensive industries rely on catalysts with the potential to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enable novel processes to address global environmental challenges
Use cases: Discovery and optimization of materials and molecules for decarbonizing industrial chemical processes
Funding: €8.5m seed round backed by VC firms like Breega, Cathay Innovation, and Felicis
Why it matters: Speeds up R&D in materials and chemical innovation, addressing sustainability and climate goals
Kvantify | Copenhagen, Denmark
Technology: AI-augmented quantum + classical computing software for molecular and materials discovery, blending quantum chemistry with ML
Customers: Early engagements with research labs and industry partners; Danish biotech giant Novonesis is among the first to test Kvantify Qrunch
Use cases: Fast modelling of molecular structures and material candidates for advanced materials and chemistry
Funding: €10m in seed funding, led by Danish VC Dreamcraft, with strategic collaborations on AI supercomputing
Why it matters: Bridges classical and quantum computing to accelerate discovery beyond current computational limits
➔ Founded only in 2022, Kvantify already offers “Qrunch,” a platform that lets scientists run quantum-like simulations through an intuitive interface
Dunia | Berlin, Germany
Technology: AI-driven autonomous materials discovery platform that integrates design, robotic experimentation, and physics-informed machine learning in a closed-loop DMTA cycle
Customers: Energy, tech, and industrial companies, with a strong focus on catalysts and active materials
Use cases: End-to-end material design and validation with automated lab execution and predictive AI
Funding: €10.6m seed-funding, co-led by Elaia and Redalpine. Others include the EIC, Pace Ventures, and Sequoia Scout backing
Why it matters: Tackles the critical data gap in materials discovery with real-world robotic data capture and predictive insights
THE PULSE
Will AI Disrupt Tech's Giants? Here's What the Data Shows
Bain’s Technology Report 2025 explores the rise of AI agents and other key tech trends, highlighting their far-reaching impact on software strategy, enterprise deployment, robotics, and IT architecture.
It also raises the question: Will AI disrupt tech’s most valuable companies?
The short answer: Yes. Even though AI is unlikely to topple today’s giants, it will profoundly reshape where and how they make their money. Here are our four key takeaways:
➔ Big tech, big stakes: AI demands resilience and reinvention of profit pools
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta, and Nvidia together account for more than 70% of total tech sector value and have defended their lead through previous waves of disruption.
AI does not primarily threaten their existence, but it does force them to reinvent business models and profit engines faster than in past cycles, or risk ceding growth at the margins to AI‑native challengers.
➔ Hyperscalers are massively ramping up AI capex to defend their dominance
Amazon (AWS), Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are collectively pushing AI-related capex beyond $200 billion a year, funding chips, data centers, and AI platforms.
This is an arms race to own the foundational infrastructure of the AI economy.
➔ Compute demand is exploding — beyond Moore’s Law
Global incremental AI compute requirements could reach ~200 GW by 2030 — roughly double current growth expectations.
To meet this demand, the industry may need ~$2 trillion in annual revenue and >$500 billion per year in data-center investment, but there’s an estimated $800 billion shortfall.
➔ The nature of SaaS economics will be disrupted
Seat-based pricing breaks down when AI agents work autonomously and at scale across users and workflows.
Monetisation is shifting toward usage, outcomes, and value delivered, forcing vendors to rethink pricing, product design, and margins.
ECOSYSTEM GIFT
Build Your Communication Confidence
Don’t we all wish for a little more confidence? The good news: it is a skill you can build.
In his new book The Confident Communicator, Stew Bewley delivers a punchy, practical guide to speaking with impact.
Packed with real stories and practical frameworks, it helps you find your voice—whether you are pitching, presenting, or just getting your point across.
Stew Bewley is a storytelling powerhouse. As the founder of Amplify, he has spent years helping founders, teams, and leaders turn complex ideas into messages that actually land.
If you’ve ever seen Stew coach, you know: he brings energy, clarity, and a contagious passion for great communication — which is why we’re excited to have him be part of our ecosystem.
➔ Channel your inner confidence! Reply ‘CONFIDENT’ to win one of three copies.
Last Week’s Winner: Congratulations to Frederik Wegner, who won a one-on-one 30-minute mentoring session with Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Capital.
DTM OPPORTUNITIES
🇪🇺 Become Our Next Featured Guardian
Who are the Guardians? They are senior decision-makers from Europe’s leading enterprises who spearhead partnerships with Europe’s leading Deep Tech startups and SMEs.
Join 100+ leaders from Siemens, BMW, SAP, Bosch, BAE Systems, Rheinmetall, Volkswagen, Deutsche Telekom, Thales Alenia Space, and Infineon committed to igniting a new era of technological strength.
Guardians guide billion-dollar enterprises in open innovation and venture clienting. They share their learnings with pan-European peers—just as Arno Baltruschat did above.
Want to be featured next? Accepted applicants who sign up in the next 48 hours win a guaranteed interview feature in one of our upcoming newsletters.
➔ Apply here.
🏆 The Deep Tech Award Comes to DTM
We are partnering with Deep Tech Berlin to bring the Deep Tech Award to DTM for the very first time. This partnership anchors the award in Europe’s leading innovation marketplace, where corporate decision-makers actively secure technologies—both commercially ready and next-horizon—from the continent’s top builders.
Builders, mark your calendars:
5 Jan – 16 Feb 2026: Application Period
20 May 2026: Award Ceremony at DTM26
➔ Keep an eye out for further announcements via Deep Tech Berlin’s LinkedIn. Categories will be revealed soon.
Enjoying Deep Tech Now? Here are two simple ways to take your DTM connection to the next level:
Apply for SPARTA: Request an invitation to Europe’s premier defence innovation marketplace at MSC 2026 (12.2.2026).
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— Isabelle and Martin
Co-Founders, DTM
