Good afternoon {{first_name}},
In less than four weeks, everyone that matters in European deep tech and AI will convene at DTM26 with a shared mission: accelerating the commercialisation of frontier technologies to strengthen European competitiveness.
In this special edition of Deep Tech Now, we look at the various formats that will make DTM26 the most impactful two days of the year for European deep tech and AI.
In this special edition:
DTM100 Pitch Competition: Five high-performance computing and five Energy startups from the DTM100 cohort — the builders pitching for Europe's top early-stage prize.
Agenda Highlight: Two of the most anticipated sessions at DTM26 map the full energy value chain — from critical mineral recovery to fusion.
The Big Drop: NZZ unveils the Top 50 Deep Tech Innovators in Europe — the corporate buyers most consistently turning startup collaborations into deployments.
Enjoy the read.
DTM100 FEATURE
10 Startups from the DTM100 HPC and Energy Cohorts to Watch in Berlin
Philip's team has been curating the full DTM100 cohort. In this special edition, we highlight ten of the early-stage builders heading to DTM26 — five from HPC, five from Energy — clustered by the technology problem they're attacking.
High-Performance Computing
Semiconductors & lithography
Inversion Semiconductor (UK, 2025 · €435k). Develops tabletop particle accelerators roughly 1,000× smaller than today's systems, aimed at next-generation lithography light sources. If it works, 15× faster chip manufacturing — and a credible path to reshoring advanced semiconductor production in the West.
Tattvam AI (UK, 2025 · €1.47M). Building an AI system that reasons from first principles about semiconductor circuits to automate chip design, compressing development cycles from years to weeks. Sits directly in the path of every major European and US fabless design house.
Lace Lithography (Norway, 2023 · €2.5M non-dilutive grant). Atom-based "Beyond-EUV" lithography, targeting chip patterning beyond current EUV limits for next-generation logic, quantum and photonics markets. One of the few European plays with a credible long-horizon answer to ASML.
Memory, storage & neuromorphic
Quinas Technology (UK, 2023 · €1.9M). Commercialising ULTRARAM, a patented compound-semiconductor memory using quantum resonant tunnelling — DRAM speed, flash non-volatility, a fraction of the energy. A universal memory chip that could replace legacy storage hierarchies.
Neuronova (Italy, 2024 · €1.5M). Ultra-low-power neuromorphic AI chips that run intelligent processing directly on edge devices, bypassing cloud dependency. Exactly the category the DTM.Computing edge-AI track is curated around.
Energy
Long-duration storage & next-gen batteries
AED Energy (UK, 2023 · €665k). Solid-state long-duration thermal batteries storing electricity as ultra-high-temperature heat (up to 800 °C) and dispatching it back as power or heat across 6–32+ hours in modular 10 MWh blocks. Built for grids, industrial sites and off-grid sites that need to treat intermittent renewables as dispatchable.
Molyon (UK, 2024 · €4.3M). Next-generation lithium-sulfur batteries delivering roughly twice the energy density of lithium-ion — lighter, longer-range electric systems across mobility and aerospace. One of the best-funded startups in the cohort.
Fusion & advanced nuclear
Firefly Fusion (France, 2024 · €50k). Compact tokamak fusion reactors using high-field copper magnet technology, targeting cost-efficient, scalable nuclear fusion power. Early stage, but France's answer to a space that has been dominated by UK and US players.
Grid software & power electronics
Squid (UK, 2026 · €430k). AI-powered, browser-based software for electricity distribution network operators — replacing fragmented spreadsheets and static models with a shared, real-time digital model of the grid for planning and capacity analysis. Exactly the category every Guardian from EnBW to enercity is actively procuring.
Sonder Labs (Sweden, 2025 · undisclosed). Grid infrastructure upgrades based on advanced power electronics and modern grid architectures, enabling higher capacity and reliability while accelerating the renewable transition. Young but founded by an experienced team and aimed squarely at Europe's most urgent grid bottleneck.
All ten will pitch live at the DTM100 Semi-Finals on 20 May and compete for a finals slot on 21 May. The winners take home investment prizes and, more importantly, the direct line into the Guardian Connect rounds — the format where PoCs actually get signed. If you're a Guardian reading this, these are the names worth scanning your shortlist for.
AGENDA HIGHLIGHT
6 Founders. 2 Value Chains. The Deep Tech Rewriting Europe's Energy Infrastructure.
Europe's energy transition isn't waiting for policy alignment. The companies building the next generation of energy infrastructure — from fusion to battery recycling to quantum-optimized grids — are moving now.
At DTM26, two curated value chain sessions bring together the founders and operators defining what Europe's energy stack will look like in 2030 and beyond.
System-Level Pathways To Reducing Energy System Costs
The energy system doesn't have a generation problem — it has a cost problem. Scaling batteries, supercapacitors and grid optimization from lab to system level requires entirely new approaches. This session maps the value chain from materials recovery to market dispatch:
Dr. Lilian Schwich, CEO & Co-Founder, cylib — Battery recycling and critical mineral recovery (Li/Co/Ni)
Taavi Madiberk, CEO & Co-Founder, Skeleton Technologies — Graphene supercapacitors for high-power energy storage
Markus Pflitsch, CEO & Co-Founder, Terra Quantum — Quantum algorithms for grid optimization and energy market dispatch
Frontier Energy Technologies
Fusion is no longer a 30-year promise. Neither is laser-driven inertial confinement. Europe has three of the world's most advanced fusion and directed energy companies — and all three are on stage at DTM26:
Lucio Milanese, Co-Founder & Chief External Affairs Officer, Proxima Fusion — Stellarator-based fusion, the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
Moritz von der Linden, CEO & Co-Founder, Marvel Fusion — Laser-driven inertial confinement fusion
Thomas Forner, CEO & Co-Founder, Focused Energy — Laser-driven fusion for clean, baseload power generation
This is where deep tech meets energy security. Three companies. Three pathways. One continent's shot at energy sovereignty.
📍 May 20–21 | DTM26, Berlin
THE BIG DROP
NZZ publishes the Top 50 Deep Tech Innovators in Europe
On 14 April, NZZ ran a feature ranking Europe's fifty most influential corporate deep tech innovators — the executives who most consistently move startup technology out of the lab and into commercial deployment inside Europe's largest companies. The ranking was built jointly by GlassDollar and Deep Tech Momentum, drawing on analysis of more than 400,000 corporate–startup collaborations across the continent.
The list is drawn from DTM's Guardians programme — a curated network of 300 senior innovation leaders representing more than 180 organisations across 25+ countries, with a combined annual revenue above €4 trillion and more than 400 billion in innovation budgets between them. To qualify as a Guardian, an executive must hold a senior role, control direct budget authority for R&D, deep tech or AI investment, and sit inside an organisation with at least €500 million in annual revenue.
All top 50 will be at DTM26 in Berlin on 20–21 May.
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— Isabelle and Martin
Co-Founders, DTM
