From Leibniz to Lovelace, Europe’s inventors have been changing the course of mankind for centuries. But recent political events have prompted a reevaluation of what tech means for European sovereignty.
“In a de-globalising world in which we cannot rely on the transatlantic friendship or a shared belief in being part of a global village, we are becoming extremely vulnerable,” warns Martin Schilling, CEO and cofounder of Deep Tech Momentum (DTM), Europe’s largest invite-only deeptech bootcamp.
Schilling says this changing landscape has turbocharged European deeptech in particular — a sector which includes technologies spanning AI, quantum and defence tech.
“To prevent war, you must prepare for war,” he says. “Investing in deeptech ensures we’re strong enough to do so. It’s a matter of security and prosperity.”
Isabelle Flanagan, chief operating officer and cofounder of DTM, says that Europe is going through a deeptech renaissance right now; it has always had the talent but now a sense of urgency too grips the continent.
“It feels like there has never been so much fire in the belly of the European ecosystem players to actually make a change,” she says. “Europe may have previously fallen behind — but the European deeptech renaissance begins now”
Here are the 25 people DTM is betting on making history.
Moritz von den Linden — CEO of Marvel Fusion
“Energy is the basis of everything. If we realise the concept of fusion energy, it will be the most competitive energy source, by far,” says Moritz von den Linden, CEO of nuclear fusion startup Marvel Fusion. “Clean, safe and abundant — it will certainly add a crucial piece to European energy sovereignty.”
Marvel Fusion has just completed a Series B funding round raising €113m making it “the best funded laser fusion company on the planet”. The technology is based on the work pioneered by the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics winners, Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou.
“Europe’s facing the biggest energy crisis since World War II,” says von den Linden. “As we’ve seen with LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas], imports from the US, Nord Stream pipelines from Russia and fantasy dreams of importing hydrogen from Australia: this is all not going to do it.”
For these reasons, von den Linden says investing in new technologies such as fusion energy is an “absolute must.”
“We have the critical knowledge infrastructure supply chain in Europe that is capable of delivering this and now is the time to do it,” he says. “If we do not take this opportunity that is at Europe’s fingertips we have much more to lose than what is already going on.”
Von den Linden is also optimistic, saying Europe simply hasn’t had the right conditions, political agenda and funding available to overtake the US yet, but that could soon change.
“Due to the situation in the US, we’ve actually seen applications from American scientists and engineers who wouldn’t have looked at us as a pimple on their butt about a year ago. The new German government has announced a trillion in funding. Now, Europe is sexy,” he says. “The continent has brilliant minds, and physics and engineering has always been a European stronghold.”
David Reger — CEO and founder of Neura Robotics
In 2019, Reger founded robotic assistant startup Neura Robotics because he believed established industry in Europe was going to miss the boat on cognitive robotics. Two years later, Reger’s team developed new robots from scratch and in January 2025 the startup raised €120m in Series B funding.
“Cognitive robots have enhanced capabilities that support us humans in our everyday lives and improve our quality of life,” says Reger. “Intelligent robotic assistants, equipped with advanced sensory, AI and machine learning technologies, enable collaboration between humans and machines in all sorts of diverse environments.”
Neura’s North Star principle is to “serve humanity”, and so the company seeks to “make work environments safer, more attractive and socially enriching — whether that’s healthcare, manufacturing, logistics or domestic settings”.
With an eye on Europe’s greatest socioeconomic challenges like labour shortage, aging populations and environmental issues, Reger is confident Europe can be in the driving seat of the robotics revolution.
“With advanced AI, robotics is on the cusp of its iPhone moment,” he says, adding that with ambition and vision, Europe is in a position to “re-establish itself as a global manufacturing leader with cognitive robotics at its core”.
The 25 European scientist-founders to watch
Deep Tech Momentum (DTM) is Europe’s largest, invite-only growth engine for deeptech. Connecting top-tier startups, investors and industry leaders to fast track funding and partnerships at scale, DTM is a deal engine powered by a “boot camp logic” and built around an exclusive community.
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