The TD Shepherd team recently had the opportunity to attend the highly esteemed Deep Tech Connect event, organized by the Extreme Tech Challenge and HighTechXL.
Deep Tech Connect is a premier gathering of visionaries, innovators, and investors who are shaping the future of technology. This event brings together cutting-edge startups, industry leaders, and venture capitalists to foster collaboration and explore groundbreaking advancements in deep tech.
Impressed by the quality of the pitches and surprised by several solid startups, scale-ups and alumni:
• Finnadvance: Prateek Singh
• Maaind: Dzera Kaytati
• HealthPlus.ai: Bart Geerts
• Vertoro: Michael Boot
• Gazelle Wind Power: Jon Salazar
• Virtuleap: Amir Bozorgzadeh
• Incooling: Helena Samodurova
• Alphabeats: CEO Han Dirkx
• Spectrik: Rick Jongen
• Luper Technologies: Maarten Kieft
• Senergetics: CEO Frank Jacobs
The introduction keynote from Peter Wennink, ASML was a good summary reflecting on the importance of perseverance and an ecosystem where innovation is not organized within a company but comes from the ecosystem among companies, including startups.
The keynote from Nicolas Autret, Walden, summarized their new report “The European Deep Tech Report” how DeepTech in Europe has grown strongly, the emerging areas in DeepTech and Deep Tech startup characteristics and risk-profile differences.
Jean-Francois Bobier, BCG, expressed Climate change being an opportunity for Deeptech startups.
The breakout session with NXP Semiconductors confirmed and expressed the growing importance of supporting the startup ecosystem to drive innovation. There was some concern from the audience on the corporates walking away with innovative ideas from the startups.
Overall The “Eindhoven region” was seen as a role model for a cooperative high-tech ecosystem among all companies.
Besides further on stage forums and discussions, it was great to reconnect with many people.
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.