A quarter of all venture capital investment in Europe goes to Deeptech solutions. According to a report developed by Dealroom and Sifted, with support from the European Commission and the European Parliament, the sector received €10B just in 2020. Deeptech startups have longer R&D cycles and take more time and capital to find their place in the market. The effort is compensated by the great impact of their ground-breaking solutions. In the first semester of this year, 4 Deeptech EIC-funded companies received investments to improve their technologies and grow. We sat down with their CEOs and discovered their funding stories!
€3.5 million to accelerate mobile internet access technology
Tessares is developing software solutions that combine any type of Internet access. This EIC beneficiary’s technology will seamlessly integrate wi-fi and cellular (4G and 5G) networks. Their innovative proposition has attracted investors and raised €3.5 million with a funding round led by the EIC Fund and Sagemcom. With the new funding, Tessares will accelerate the development of their internet-provision innovation for a superior smartphone experience.
According to Denis Périquet, CEO & Co-Founder of Tessares, "wi-fi and 4G/5G are equally needed to cope with the ever-growing data volumes generated by the smartphone users”. “Our ambition is to play a pivotal role and become a market leader in the solution that will make wi-fi and 4G/5G work as one".
€1 million to enhance time-series data analysis
Shapelets provides pioneering software to process and analyse time-series data to help data scientists improve their decision-making process. The venture capital manager Inveready has invested €1 million in Shapelets’ technology, which is one of the first time series analysis platforms in the Big Data field. The capital will support the EIC-funded company to work on the product’s distribution, launch its platform to the market, and expand at an international level.
Jorge Aguilar Garcia, CMO of Shapelets, shared that this investment will give them the time they need to finish their product in the right way. "If we wouldn’t have the investment, we would probably need to launch the first part of our platform and only later we would be able to develop the rest. But now, with this investment, we can create the whole product and have a nice launch to the market", he added. Jorge has his eyes focused on the company’s future and is already planning its international strategy: "in data science, we are at the very beginning. As next steps, we want to have this product in the market and after generating its second version."
€26 million for manufacturing of optical solutions for 3D sensing
NILT is developing unique solutions for optical components that take optical sensing and 3D imaging to the next level. Optical components based on NILT’s solutions are already used in flagship smartphones, where cutting edge real-time sensor technologies, such as face and gesture recognition or monitoring of surroundings, are needed. Early this year, the Danish EIC company has received €26 million from a funding round co-led by Jolt Capital, NGP Capital and Vækstfonden, and EIC Fund as a new significant investor. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its mass production capabilities and expand its product development efforts.
Theodor Nielsen, Founder & CEO of NILT, mentioned that securing a significant round with well-recognised investors gave credibility to the company towards other partners and customers. "These are all elements that are crucial to our quest to become a world-leading optics component supplier", he said. In addition, Theodor is convinced that this investment will help them reinforce their team and qualities. "We need to excel in many disciplines, and we need to do this fast, so the best way to achieve this is to focus on our team and capabilities".
Investment for large scale quantum computing
Many organisations are looking into the future and investing in quantum computing, communication and sensing devices. Still, the quantum industry needs to develop a mature supply chain of dedicated high-tech products. Delft Circuits, an EIC-funded company, is designing and manufacturing solutions for cryogenic environments to operate quantum systems. At the moment, the Dutch SME is working to scale and industrialise their factory and team. To achieve this objective, Delft Circuits has received funding from three investors - High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Scholt Group, and QuVest Capital.
Artem Nikitin, Head of Sales of Delft Circuits shared the next steps of the company, after the funding: “the invesment allowed us to build our pilot production line, strengthen our team, develop these integrated products and set up testing partnerships with world class players in the field of quantum computing.” explained. To continue with this solid expansion, the startup is already scaling the capacity of production: "at the end of the investment period, we will have customer validated solutions for quantum computer builders. In order to deliver higher volumes, we are currently working on a large-scale fabrication line at a new location".
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.