What are the best deep tech startups in the European landscape right now? What are their competitors? And which organizations are developing similar solutions worldwide? We tried to answer to these questions through a study led within our latest R&D effort, Startup Radar: Startup Scouting System for Benchmarking & Tech Due Diligence.
Essentially, Startup Radar is a tool that autonomously extracts meaningful connections between various entities found in diverse and unstructured data sources: In our specific business application, we had a clear goal: identifying three pivotal occurrences in the startup landscape—mergers & acquisitions, funding events, and product launches. Moreover, an exciting element incorporated into our radar’s design is its ability to pinpoint ‘Similar To’ companies based primarily on their expertise and product offerings.
Leveraging this latter feature, we developed a report that gives an outlook of the current European startup ecosystem, going through 50 startups involved in deep tech and innovative tech and 150 similar companies and competitors.
What follows is a sneak peek: if you want to check the full report, download it here.
Startup radar sector. Source: Linknovate
Biotech and Pharma
In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector, the startup Alkion BioInnovations stands out, which is dedicated to the manufacture and commercialization of cancer treatments, as well as natural ingredients for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. It’s particularly noted for being a pioneer in plant tissue propagation technologies. Another leading player in this sector is Aplagon Oy, the first pharmaceutical company in research on mast cell-derived heparin proteoglycans (HEP-PG). It is a startup focused on addressing unmet patient needs associated with vascular injury related thrombotic blood vessel occlusions and subsequent organ damage.
We can also highlight Cellevate as a biotech company focused on the development of next generation cell culture systems, whose production is based on a proprietary nanofiber-based platform – the Cellevat3d – that has enormous potential to revolutionize upstream bioprocessing from R&D to commercial manufacturing. In the cellular arena we can also find Tilt Biotherapeutics, a biotech company enabling T-cell therapy with oncolytic viruses, that is expected to start clinical trials soon.
Core Biogenesis is a startup also focused on biotechnology but centered on the construction of next generation recombinant protein production technologies or, in other words, to the use of plants as expression hosts to produce recombinant proteins. Laurentia Technologies is a research and development center that develops, produces and commercializes sustainable micro-encapsulations of active ingredients and functional coatings based on nanomaterials.
Comparison of C. sativa seeds before and after application of core Biogenesis technology. Source: Core Biogenesis
Finally, closing the alphabetical list of noteworthy biotech and pharma startups, but positioning themselves as leaders in their sectors, are Perha Pharmaceuticals and Scipio Bioscience. The former focuses on research and development of kinase inhibitors, while the latter is more IT-related, providing sample preparation solutions for single-cell studies in the form of easy-to-use benchtop kits and intuitive cloud-based software.
Medtech and Healthcare
In the medical and public health sector, we highlighted a total of 14 startups whose production is aimed at healthcare innovation. Adjucor is positioned in the sector as a MedTech focused on the commercialization of a revolutionary cardiac assist device that is biventricular and does not require any blood contact. It is followed by AMT Medical, a clinical-stage medical device company developing a minimally invasive heart bypass device with the aim of making traditional heart bypass faster, safer and easier; Contextflow, a company that uses AI imaging technology and deep learning-based tools to help radiologists during their daily clinical routine; and Cube DX, a molecular diagnostics company focused on diagnosing serious bacterial, fungal and viral infections.
Adjucor’s technology. Source: Adjucor
This group also includes InVera Medical, a medical device company developing a medical device for patients with venous disease; Loci Orthopaedics, a multi-award winning medical device company specializing in the development of orthopaedical technologies; Mysphera, a medical startup providing award-winning open healthcare solutions through the Internet of Things; or New Born Solutions, now rebranded as Kriba, which is also a medical device company developing non-invasive technology for the detection and monitoring of infections in serous body fluids, with a focus on childhood meningitis.
Peili Vision is also a remarkable startup, as it has created a platform that combines three practices at the same time to help schools and healthcare with early intervention: VR technology, data and gamification. Predisurge also positions itself within the sector as a software company that offers design and support solutions for doctors and medical device companies; as well as Selio Medical, an award-winning medical device company that designs, develops and manufactures a patent-protected technology platform to improve the lives of lung cancer patients. Surgify is another startup in med-tech that develops solutions to protect structures in bone-cutting surgical procedures.
Closing the sector, Thericon and VesselsSens are two companies that have also achieved a great positioning in healthcare, the former standing out for its peculiar objective of bringing multiparametric imaging to the operating room, and the latter for being a monitoring gadget that allows early, non-invasive diagnosis of restenosis.
Agrotech and Foodtech
As startups related to the agri-food sector, four were selected that are completely revolutionizing everything known so far. These innovative companies are CattleEye, Connecting Food, Multus and Ovagen.
The first stands out for providing a complete solution for farmers, allowing them to monitor the performance and welfare of their cows. The second, Connecting Food, is a company that operates as a blockchain platform that ensures complete traceability from farm to fork, including smart modules that help identify supply issues in real time. For its part, Multus is an affordable, scalable farmed meat business, focusing on nurturing the means of growth, so that its customers can focus on bringing delicious, sustainable meat to the world. Finally, Ovagen is a technology company that has developed the process of producing germ-free chicken eggs.
Cleantech
The cleantech sector has experienced a breakthrough in recent years due to the growing concern about the climate crisis and the need for environmentally friendly solutions. In this context, three companies stand above the rest with the aim of redirecting the present towards a cleaner future.
CH Bioforce positions itself as a startup that provides the world’s only tech which gently extracts all of the main components of biomass in one process. Ioniqa Technologies is a clean-tech spinoff specialized in creating value out of plastic waste by using its proprietary circular technology. Finally, Kvasir Technologies is focused on producing a technology that converts plant biomass into a 1:1 substitute for fossil marine fuel in a sustainable and scalable way.
Ioniqa’s products based on plastic waste, Source: Ioniqa
Robotics
Regarding the industrial sector of startups focused on robot production and robotics research, the company Danieli Telerobot stands out, which designs, develops, manufactures, qualifies and delivers highly complex instrumental goods in the robotics, mechatronics, automatic and special machines market with creativity and technical expertise. Noteworthy is the role of Furhart Robotics, a conversational artificial intelligence and social robotics company that is building the world’s first social robotics platform and conversational systems. Xenergic is a strong startup in the robotics area as well, acting as a supplier of extremely low power SRAM IP semiconductors.
Quantum Computing
The quantum computing business is also undergoing a revolution due to the multiple applications that this technology can have in different sectors. Taking advantage of this multidisciplinary nature and the fact that it is a branch in full development, some startups are dedicated to continuing innovating in this field. One of them is Pasqal, a company that is developing a full-stack quantum computer that will be used to simulate complex phenomena for scientific discovery and to address general problems such as optimization, drug discovery or machine learning. Another one is Quantware, a quantum startup that builds super-conducting quantum processors and related hardware..
Satellites
Also linked to the development of new technologies, the sector linked to the creation of satellite systems is booming. In this context, the startup Polar View, a global organization that provides cutting-edge satellite data and information services in the polar regions and the cryosphere, stands out. In a similar context, LiveEO, a pioneering provider of earth observation and AI technologies, is also positioned, unlocking the potential of satellite data to provide actionable insights for businesses, resulting in greater safety, efficiency and sustainability.
Constellr also stands out in the sector, as a pan-European technology company providing global water monitoring systems, positioning itself as a pioneer in the use of thermal infrared microsatellites for global land surface temperature (LST) monitoring. Finally, it is worth highlighting SAALG Geomechanics, an engineering company specializing in advanced numerical solutions, calibration of numerical models and characterization of soil and rock parameters through back analysis.
LiDAR and Sensors
Radar and sensing-based technology is present in many of the new startups that have innovation as their driving force. Among them is Cailabs, a deep tech company that designs, manufactures and sells photonics products for space, industry, telecommunications and defense. Watgrid joins the list as a company focused on developing innovative technological solutions for digitization processes in liquid related industries. In this group are also Ignion and XenomatiX, the former as an antenna innovator that creates a multiband, multipurpose and ready-to-use antenna; and the latter offering LiDAR sensors based on a multi-beam lasers concept and risk-free, scalable, semiconductor technology.
The world’s smallest cellular antenna, made by Ignion. Source: Ignion
Data and Work Management
When it comes to the sector of managing and working with large amounts of data that require processing and storage, we can highlight three startups that are positioningned themselves as leaders in the sector in a very short time. The first of these is LeanXcale, a SQL database with fast key-value data ingestion and linear horizontal scalability. Also prominent in the sector is Phonexia, which develops software capable of transforming voice to knowledge with its innovative speech analytics and voice biometric technologies. Last but not least, Sunlight is developing products that virtualize any high-performance workload with bare-metal performance.
Risk Management
the sector of risk management has changed deeply in the last decades, with new digital and automated solutions taking the lead of the sector. We highlighted three providers of risk management solutions: Beawre, which focuses on facilitating risk management in highly volatile and regulated environments and providing the means to assess, optimize and monitor the status of risks in near real time;
Sensima Inspection , which identifies itself as a high-tech company with the goal of developing and commercializing advanced electromagnetic solutions for non-destructive testing and quality control; and Twaice, a provider of battery analysis software, which helps battery companies eliminate risks and seize opportunities.
Twaice launches new battery model library. Source: Twaice
Supply Chain
Another key area issupply chain, which ensures that the product reaches the customer perfectly after assembly or creation. Two startups stand out here that, in a short time, have positioned themselves as key players in the sector: Dronamics and Transmetrics. The former focuses on the development of unmanned aerial systems for shipping commercial and special cargo applications. The second, Transmetrics, is a state-of-the-art AI platform developed exclusively for the Supply Chain, Transmetrics optimizes transport planning by leveraging the power of predictive analytics and machine learning.
