Last week in European deep tech (Feb 16-22)

Viesturs Abelis

It’s a mellow mid-February, but Europe’s deep tech engine is humming. Quantonation’s €220M quantum fund and Emerald’s €52M physical AI platform headlined a week that also saw the EIC support 61 startups and Fraunhofer boost its spin-out fund by €90M, while the Chips Act continued to spur semiconductor investments across the continent.

Policy & ecosystem

  • Quantonation Ventures closes €220M quantum fund backed by Toshiba [Tech.eu]
  • New €52M platform targets next wave of physical AI innovation, courtesy of Swiss VC firm Emerald and Japanese manufacturer DIC [EU-Startups]
  • Fraunhofer boosts its spin-out ‘transmission belt’ fund by €90M [Science|Business]
  • 61 start-ups and SMEs secure EIC support in latest round of the EIC Accelerator [EIC]
  • 18 women set to compete for the 2026 European Prize for Women Innovators [EIC]
  • Chips Act spurs semiconductor investments in Europe [Science|Business]

Space tech

  • UCD-powered start-up Setanta Space plans to make next generation of spacecraft more autonomous [Science|Business]

Biotech & medtech

  • Eindhoven’s MedTech startup Xyall secures €7.6M for global rollout of its automated tissue dissection system [EU-Startups]
  • Swedish CubaseBio emerges from stealth with €5.9M to scale volumetric DNA microscopy [Arctic Startup]
  • Cancer and immunology player Umlaut.bio adds funding to reach ~€3M pre-seed total [EU-Startups]

Climate, energy & industrial tech

  • Norway’s Kilter secures €6.5M to scale autonomous precision weeding technology; prepares for Series B [EU-Startups]
  • Sitegeist secures €4M pre-seed for AI modular robots in construction [Tech.eu]
  • Luxembourg-based ElevenEs secures its first Series B investment round [Startup Rise]
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