𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐳𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐢𝐬𝐭: 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞

This is part of a 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 TechTour which have been going on since.. 1999 (declared interest: I am member of the Selection Committee). The reasons for attending? Keeping a pulse on the market, and an easy way to keep in touch with a bunch of investors, old and new alike (something like 15+ good discussions over 1.5 days).

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 than the year past, even if the calibre is still not quite Silicon Valley-like uniformly. At the same time, the message from investors is getting more vocal: be ambitious and 𝐠𝐨 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞.

This may be difficult for deeptech companies which sometimes focus on too much of point solutions. At the same time, we had this year 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 of companies which aim high. For instance (by alphabetical in order to be on the safe side):

🇳🇱 Axelera AI (Netherlands) – a European provider of chips optimized for edge AI applications (>$200m raised)
🇫🇷 🇺🇸 Enchanted Tools (France/US) – which uses its humanoid robots to get AI to help humans (initially in B2B settings). More than >$50m raised (including grants and loans) - declared interest: I am on the Board.
🇳🇱 🇫🇷 THORIZON (Netherlands/France) – the developer of a nuclear, molten-based Small Modular Reactor (SMR) (close to $50m raised)

All these companies aim big and are 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐨𝐧. They may not all make it, but mostly because they will be picked up as M&A targets by bigger tech companies.

The other big plus of these companies? A down-to-earth approach to their ambitions. This may not be the constant hyperboles which Elon Musk has made its trademark of, but the claims are all the more credible, and the execution is 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭, just like the best of the crop in Europe. Way to go.

📎 Source:
https://techtour.com/ttgd25/

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