This article originally appeared in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in German.

The gap between laboratory and market is the central problem facing Europe as a technology hub. Ideas are plentiful: in quantum computing, robotics, advanced materials science, space, and defence technology, European universities and startups are conducting research at world-class level. What is missing are companies willing to integrate these technologies into their own operational reality at an early stage — long before a product is market-ready.

Deep tech is not a catch-all term for everything that is new and digital. It refers to technologies based on fundamental scientific research whose development typically takes years or decades. What distinguishes them from conventional technology is not only their complexity, but the nature of the risk involved: while a new software product primarily carries market risk, deep tech primarily carries technical risk. Those who solve it usually find the market already waiting. A functioning fusion reactor, for example, would meet demand for clean, affordable energy that is practically unlimited. The open question is not whether, but when the physics will cooperate.

Another characteristic of deep tech is that the decisive breakthroughs rarely emerge within a single discipline. A fusion reactor requires plasma physics to meet new high-temperature superconductors — with AI models helping to test designs that no human could calculate alone. Autonomous drones emerge where sensor fusion, real-time AI, and materials science simultaneously reach a new level. Molecular drug research accelerates when chemistry, robotics, and generative AI control the same laboratory process. Deep tech is, in this sense, a product of innovation happening at the intersection of technological frontiers.

Measured, Not Chosen — A Ranking with Methodology

To understand which companies are actually taking this risk, the Berlin-based software specialist GlassDollar analysed a proprietary dataset of over 400,000 recorded startup collaborations. GlassDollar is a platform that helps corporations systematically identify, evaluate, and implement innovative solutions company-wide. For this ranking, publicly available sources were used: press releases, company publications, case studies, and official partnership announcements. The result is not a popularity contest or a reputation parade, but a data-driven mapping of actual activity: which companies demonstrably enter into startup partnerships, in which technology fields, and to what extent?

Based on this dataset, GlassDollar and Deep Tech Momentum (DTM) jointly determined the "Top 50 Deep Tech Innovators in Europe." Those listed come from DTM's "Guardians of European Deep Tech" programme — a curated network of the 300 highest-ranking innovation leaders from European corporations. Membership in this programme requires meeting concrete criteria: a C-level or equivalent leadership position, direct budget responsibility for research, development, or investments with a focus on deep tech or AI, and an organisation with annual revenues of at least €500 million. Together, the 300 Guardians represent over 180 organisations from more than 25 countries, with a combined annual revenue exceeding €4 trillion and more than 15 million employees.

Venture Clienting as a Strategic Instrument

What many of those listed have in common is an approach that experts call venture clienting: corporations act as paying customers of innovative solution providers before those providers have reached the mass market. This differs from the classic corporate venture capital model, in which companies act as investors without necessarily working with the technology themselves. In venture clienting, operational integration is the priority: solutions are deployed in real corporate environments — with real demand, real infrastructure, and real requirements.

For solution providers, this means gaining a relevant reference customer, and with it often the decisive proof that their technology works outside the laboratory. For corporations, it means early access to solutions that could not be developed internally — and frequently a competitive advantage over companies that wait.

The seriousness with which this model is increasingly being pursued is reflected in the numbers: within DTM's network alone, over 500 pilot projects and startup partnerships have been initiated to date, and follow-on investments of more than €500 million have been facilitated.

**Deep Tech Momentum 2026 — Where the Network Meets**

On 20 and 21 May 2026, the 50 listed innovators will come together with over 3,000 founders, investors, and corporate representatives at Wilhelm Studios in Berlin. Deep Tech Momentum sees itself not as a conventional conference, but as a structured innovation marketplace: at its core are pre-curated one-on-one conversations, closed roundtables on topics such as AI-assisted production optimisation, defence procurement, and quantum computing, as well as targeted matchmaking between corporations and startups. The 300 Guardians receive preferential access to sector-specific summits on venture clienting and AI productivity. Interested parties can secure a ticket online, gaining access to the talks and 50 workshops.

More information about Deep Tech Momentum 2026

4 of the 50 Most Important Deep Tech Innovators in Europe

Klaus Kappen is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Rheinmetall. The Düsseldorf-based defence company ranks among the highest in GlassDollar's dataset for startup collaboration intensity in the defence sector. In a geopolitical environment where European defence spending is rising and demand for dual-use technologies — systems deployable both for civilian and military purposes — is growing, the systematic involvement of startups in Rheinmetall's procurement and development processes is no longer a side effect of its innovation strategy, but a core component of it. The company is represented in the Guardian Programme by two members.

Maximiliane von Butler serves as Vice President Energy Innovation at Enercity, headquartered in Hanover, overseeing the innovation agenda of one of Germany's larger municipal utilities. In the energy sector — where storage technologies, decentralised grids, and AI-driven system optimisation are driving transformation — established utilities can hardly rely on internal development alone. Maximiliane von Butler is a leading voice for an approach in which collaboration with startups is not pursued on a project-by-project basis, but as a structural component of innovation management.

Otmar Schreiner is Managing Director of co-pace, the startup collaboration unit of Aumovio headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, where he is responsible for innovation and ventures. Aumovio, which emerged from Continental's automotive division, is among the most active venture clienting operators in the manufacturing technology space according to GlassDollar's dataset. What co-pace has been practising for years is regarded in the industry as a structured example of this approach: the team identifies deep tech startups, accompanies them as their first industrial customer, and takes financial stakes when appropriate. One of the most notable partnerships was formed with Munich-based startup DeepDrive, whose dual-rotor electric motor co-pace not only incorporated into its development process, but also secured through a stake in the Series A financing. The goal is a combined drive and braking unit directly at the wheel — a technology Aumovio could not have developed internally.

Daniel Weber leads the Venture Clienting division at the Lufthansa Innovation Hub in Berlin. He represents an approach that has been institutionally embedded within the group: the targeted search for startup solutions to operational challenges — from automation in ground handling to the optimisation of maintenance processes. The fact that an aviation group like Lufthansa has established venture clienting as a standalone function with its own budget is symptomatic of a development spreading across European industry.