This year, the TD Shepherd team also had the opportunity to attend the HighTechXL Xlday24 event at the Conference Center High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
This event brings together cutting-edge startups, industry leaders, and venture capitalists to foster collaboration and explore groundbreaking advancements in deep tech to tackle global societal challenges.
Robin, Partnership Manager at HighTechXL, gave the audience insights into the venture-building journey, ecosystem partners, last year’s highlights, and what to look forward to in the coming months.
The conversation between John Bell, CEO at HighTechXL, and Guus Frericks, CEO at DeepTechXL, sparked people’s interest in the subject, followed by Hilde de Vocht, who took the stage to celebrate 25 years of High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Impressed by the quality of the pitches and surprised by several solid startups, scale-ups, and alumni:
• VitalWear: Eric Thelen
• Inner: Efrat Avnet Steinberg
• Sandgrain: Rene Claessen
• Senergetics : Frank Jacobs
• Tomoscono: Gert Schoonenberg
• Avoxt: Pascal van Bakel
Professor Earl Goetheer’s held a passionate keynote on energy transition and underscored the vital role of technology and collaboration in achieving sustainable solutions.
The first panel put young talents in the spotlight: Mihai Mihut, Analyst at DeepTechXL; Anna van den Boom, Innovation Manager at InPhocal; and Miriam Domingos Antonissen, Marketing and Communication Assistant at Senergetics. Moderated by Joris Jansens, Technology Scout & Venture Support Manager at HighTechXL, the panel explored the challenges and opportunities for young professionals in the deep-tech startup ecosystem. The challenges young talent face today when entering a fast-growing environment and how experienced professionals can help them challenge themselves and grow are just some topics discussed. As Mihai stated: “Give us something that matters, and we will live up to it.”
The second panel, moderated by Hessel Mittelmeijer, Investment Manager & Sustainability Officer at DeepTechXL, investigated the challenges of creating, building, and investing in energy and material transition together with Beatrix Bos, Project manager & impact creator at Carbyon, Jeroen Glansdorp, Co-Founder at Veridis and Teun Brand, Co-Founder at Catalyzer Technologies. This discussion provided valuable insights into the investment landscape for sustainable technologies.
HighTechXL and DeepTechXL foster innovation and support the next generation of deep-tech leaders to tackle global societal challenges.
Generating infrared light isn’t difficult. But generating it on a chip — reliably, efficiently, and compactly — is a different story. Traditional IR sources rely on heating elements. They radiate across a wide range of wavelengths, consume significant power, and require filters to isolate the signals. Manageable in labs, unworkable in wearables.
Innovation tends to follow a familiar path: first, we invent something powerful. Then we shrink it. Only then does it become an everyday part of the infrastructure. But one layer is still missing in today’s technology: sensing beyond the visible.
The journey from concept to market looks very different in traditional tech compared to deep tech. While traditional tech benefits from streamlined processes and quicker iteration, deep tech ventures face longer, more complex cycles due to the groundbreaking nature of their innovations.