Category: Deep tech

  • Vay secures €34M to bring remote-controlled cars to the streets of Europe

    German “teledriving” startup Vay has secured €34mn from the European Investment Bank (EIB).   In January, Vay launched a commercial remote-controlled car service in Las Vegas. Now it wants to roll out the technology on its home turf. In 2023, the company successfully conducted test drives without a safety driver on public roads in Hamburg. Vay…

  • German startup OroraTech raises €25M to scale wildfire early warning system

    German startup OroraTech raises €25M to scale wildfire early warning system

    Munich-based startup OroraTech has secured €25mn in funding to scale up its AI-powered wildfire detection system.  Korys, the investment arm of the Colruyt’s — a Belgian noble family — led the funding round. The EU’s Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) also chipped in, alongside existing investor Bayern Kapital.  OroraTech will use the fresh funding to fuel…

  • Italy’s D-Orbit lands €119M ESA contract to service satellites in space

    The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a €119mn contract with Italian scaleup D-Orbit for its first in-orbit servicing mission, RISE.  Scheduled for launch in 2028, RISE will attempt to rendezvous with, maneuver, and detach from an ESA satellite in geostationary orbit. Then it will embark on an 8-year mission, visiting several other satellites and…

  • Taiwan’s TSMC is planning more chip fabs in Europe

    In what could be a big win for the EU’s chip industry, Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council Minister, Wu Cheng-wen, says TSMC is planning to further expand operations in the bloc TSMC broke ground in August on a €10bn chip plant in Dresden, Germany — its first in Europe. The German government will provide…

  • EU backs Dutch scaleup Lumicks to fast-track discovery of cancer treatments

    Amsterdam-based scaleup Lumicks has secured €20mn from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to accelerate the discovery of immunotherapy drugs for cancer.  The venture debt funding will help Lumicks further develop and market its cell avidity analyser, a machine with the potential to transform the way researchers study and develop treatments for Europe’s second most deadly…

  • TNW Conference 2025 theme spotlight: AI and Deeptech

    Debates about AI are everywhere these days. Families are chatting about its impacts on their lives. Politicians are deliberating over the laws that oversee it. Workers are talking about the risks of job automation. Entrepreneurs are chewing over the business opportunities. And the tech world is discussing what everyone else will be discussing next. Unfortunately,…

  • Norwegian startup Muybridge emerges from stealth to ‘reinvent’ the camera

    Deep tech startup Mybridge has emerged from the shadows with an €8mn investment to fuel its objective — to revolutionise the way we take photos. Founded by Håkon Espeland and Anders Tomren in 2020, Muybridge has spent the last four years developing real-time computer vision technology that uses software to replace most of the moving…

  • Google DeepMind duo win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

    Google DeepMind scientists Demis Hassabis and John Jumper today won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The duo will share the prestigious prize — seen as the pinnacle of scientific achievement — with University of Washington professor David Bakker for his work on computational protein design. “This prize represents the promise of computational biology,” Jumper…

  • Holiday homes platform launches ‘global first’ visual search engine

    Danish startup Landfolk has launched a visual search engine for holiday homes. Named Daisy, the feature invites users to search for their dream destinations. They can enter endless prompts, from “a luxurious room overlooking the ocean” to “a cosy cabin in the mountains.” After ingesting a query, the feature spits back images linked to properties…

  • OpenAI adds offices in Paris, Brussels to deep European footprint

    OpenAI is opening new offices in Paris and Brussels as the ChatGPT maker accelerates its global expansion plans. The new sites increase the company’s European presence to four offices. They join London, which began OpenAI’s international expansion in 2023, and Dublin, which became the firm’s first EU base a few months later. Alongside the European…

  • Nebius is tripling Nvidia GPU capacity at its AI data centre in Finland

    “Welcome on board. I have been tasked with taking you to Mäntsälä — in the middle of nowhere,” the minivan driver greets us in the characteristic clear and unhurried intonations of a Finnish native speaker. Mäntsälä is, indeed, in the middle of nowhere. But this kind of location is often where you find collections of…

  • Stockholm startup Lovable raises $7.5M for AI coding assistant

    Stockholm-based Lovable has raised $7.5mn in pre-seed funding for its newly-launched AI coding assistant that promises to make everyone a dev. Dubbed GPT Engineer, the AI coding tool generates production-ready code in real-time, without requiring developer experience. According to the startup, users need only chat with the assistant to build websites and web apps. “We want…

  • Ukraine’s new F-16 simulator spotlights a ‘paradigm shift’ led by XR

    To the average eye, extended reality is starting to look bleak. The metaverse has bombed, the Apple Vision Pro has flopped, and Sony has all but abandoned the PSVR. Sadly for Mark Zuckerberg, consumers rarely want to strap computers to their faces. But there is one place where business is booming: the military. XR has…

  • A ‘planetary defence mission’ has stirred dreams of asteroid mining

    Europe’s spacetech elite are making their final preparations for a groundbreaking meeting with an asteroid. A spacecraft called Hera — named after the Greek goddess of marriage — will make the rendezvous. The probe is slated for launch on October 7. If all goes well, Hera will then complete a detailed inspection of Dimorphos —…

  • AI startup Poolside raises $500M as AI coding market booms

    AI startup Poolside has raised a whopping $500mn — and it still hasn’t even launched a product. Despite the barren release schedule, the company has become an investors’ darling. The new Series B round brings Poolside’s total funding to $626mn. Its valuation now stands at a cool $3bn. The cash magnet is a AI-powered coding….

  • A microbial extract from Finnish forests can heal eczema, a biotech startup says

    Finland’s vast green forests are famously restorative. So restorative that they can even treat diseases. That’s according to Uute Scientific, a biotech firm based in Helsinki. The company has created a unique remedy: a microbial extract that replicates Finnish nature. Today, the startup revealed new evidence of the organism’s powers. The extract targets a growing health…

  • Dutch startup targets remote patient monitoring with its smart stethoscope

    Amsterdam-based Lapsi Health is looking to firmly position itself in the rapidly-evolving market of smart medical devices. The startup announced yesterday the US launch of its first clinical support tool, a digital stethoscope, after receiving clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the US regulator for medical devices. Dubbed Keikku, the digital stethoscope…

  • IBM opens first European quantum data centre

    IBM’s first quantum data centre in Europe may have been planned during his predecessor’s tenure, but it was Olaf Scholz with entourage who descended on the small German town of Ehningen on Tuesday. The reason was to welcome the first IBM Heron processor to be installed outside of the US.  When the Chancellor of Germany…

  • Huma acquires eConsult to advance digital healthcare in the UK

    London-based scaleup Huma announced today the expansion of its digital healthcare solutions with the acquisition of eConsult. This is one of the UK’s largest digital triage and consultation platforms across primary and emergency care. Founded in 2011, Huma works with healthcare providers and big pharma to improve clinical outcomes with digital solutions. Since its founding,…

  • TNW Conference is coming back with a bang — and 6 thrilling new themes

    2025 marks Amsterdam’s 750th birthday. It also marks the 19th TNW Conference, which will take place on June 19 and 20 at — and you’re all invited. The show returns to NDSM next year, right at the heart of the city. As usual, we’re bringing together the entire ecosystem, from startups and investors to C-level…

  • 6-fingered gloves sent to Altman, EU leaders in chilling AI warning

    Six-fingered gloves have been sent to global leaders as a chilling reminder of AI dangers. The gloves symbolise a disturbing digital problem: image generators giving people extra fingers. The petrifying pictures have now been brought to life by Finnish startup Saidot. “AI is developing so fast that nobody can fully anticipate its impacts and the…

  • Chip that steers terahertz beams sets stage for ultrafast internet of the future

    Imagine a future where internet connections are not only lightning-fast but also remarkably reliable, even in crowded spaces. This vision is rapidly approaching reality, thanks to new research on terahertz communications technologies. These innovations are set to transform wireless communication, particularly as communications technology advances toward the next generation of networks, 6G. I’m an engineer…

  • AI translation unicorn DeepL launches New York tech hub to boost US expansion

    DeepL, the Cologne-based AI translation unicorn, today launched its first tech hub in the US, in New York City. The move follows the company’s increasing growth and investment in the US market, where it already counts customers such as Coursera and Morningstar. DeepL opened its first US office, in Austin, Texas, earlier this year. The…

  • Autoscriber teams up with Microsoft to scale ambient clinical intelligence software

    Microsoft has partnered with medical note taking software startup Autoscriber to further scale the latter’s software across the EMEA region. The company’s speech-based AI tool frees up large chunks of doctors’ time and allows them to stay focused on their patients during consults. Based out of the Netherlands and South Africa, Autoscriber offers an ambient…

  • AI will turn smartphones into ‘proactive assistants’

    Arm wants to upgrade the brains inside our devices. The chip designer — whose architectures power 99% of smartphones — envisions AI bringing a new wave of breakthroughs to our handsets. The company outlined this plan after the release of Llama 3.2 — Meta’s first open-source models that processes both images and text. Arm said the models run…

  • VC investment in European defence tech to hit record $1B in 2024, report finds

    Following a five-fold growth since 2018, VC investment in Europe’s defence tech is set to hit a record year in 2024, as it’s on course to reach $1bn. According to a new Dealroom report, Europe is now at the heart of an investment surge, as governments turn to the defence tech sector to strengthen national…

  • New ‘Moon on Earth’ can launch ‘European renaissance’ in space

    A new recreation of the Moon on Earth has sparked hopes of a “European renaissance” in space. Known as LUNA, the futuristic facility was inaugurated today in Cologne, Germany. The ceremony showcased several striking features, from a 700-square-metre replica of the lunar surface to a Sun simulator that mimics the Moon’s phases.  Also in the pipeline…

  • New UK startup raises $12M for personal AI agents with long-term memory

    London-based Convergence has raised $12mn in pre-seed funding to further develop its personal AI agents, which can learn using long-term memory much like humans do. Behind the startup are machine learning engineers Marvin Purtorab (CEO) and Andy Toulis (CTO). The duo met at Shopify while working on recommender systems and AI assistants. In 2023, they…

  • UK biotech startup raises $100M for next-gen vaccines for respiratory viruses

    The vaccine market might be a crowded one, but London-based Vicebio aspires to cement its own place within it. The startup announced today it has raised $100mn in Series B funding for the development of its next-generation vaccines for respiratory viruses. Vicebio aims to deliver vaccines that are highly effective, easy to manufacture, and ready-to-use…

  • AI doesn’t hallucinate — why attributing human traits to tech is users’ biggest pitfall

    This year, Air Canada lost a lawsuit against a customer who was misled by an AI chatbot into purchasing full-price plane tickets, being assured they would later be refunded under the company’s bereavement policy. The airline tried to claim the bot was “responsible for its own actions.” This line of argumentation was rejected by the…