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Deep Tech Industry Snapshot for 2026

By 2030, Europe alone could generate up to USD 1 trillion in deep tech enterprise value and create as many as 1 million jobs if research intensity can be translated into scalable companies. This positions deep tech as a long-horizon capability market anchored in science, infrastructure, and sovereign competitiveness.

From a capital perspective, deep tech represented roughly 24% of global venture capital funding in 2023, equivalent to USD 79 billion in Series B and later rounds. While total funding remains cyclical – peaking at USD 158 billion in 2021 – the persistence of large late-stage rounds signals sustained investor conviction in capital-intensive technologies.

Market sizing varies widely depending on the definition, but all credible forecasts point to rapid expansion. IndustryARC projects the global deep tech market to reach approximately USD 714.6 billion by 2031. This will be driven by AI, robotics, advanced materials, and biotech.

WIPO reports 3.55 million patent applications filed globally in 2023, while its generative AI landscape alone shows 54 000 GenAI inventions, with more than 25% emerging in a single year. The European Patent Office further notes that startups holding patents are up to 10x more likely to attract investment.

Deep Tech Market Size, Growth Rates, and Long-Horizon Forecasts

Deep Tech shows broad scale and sustained expansion in our database. Our platform tracks 57 669 deep tech startups within more than 1 million total companies. Yearly industry growth reached 22.22% year over year. This points to steady ecosystem formation rather than short-term cycles.

External benchmarks confirm that this growth extends beyond early adoption. IndustryARC projects the deep tech market will reach USD 714.6 billion by 2031 and grow at a 48.2% CAGR (2025-2031). This will be driven by AI, quantum, robotics, advanced materials, and biotech.

 

Source: McKinsey

 

McKinsey estimates that deep tech could generate USD 1 trillion in enterprise value by 2030 in Europe. Additionally, Europe’s share of global deep tech unicorn formation increased from 4% in 2021 to 8% in 2024.

However, activity concentrates in a limited number of hubs.

According to our data, the leading country hubs are the USA, the UK, India, Canada, and Germany. The main city hubs include San Francisco, New York City, London, Singapore, and Bengaluru.

At the same time, the GSER 2024 report ranks Silicon Valley, New York City, and London as the top global startup ecosystems.

Patent-linked activity further underscores the sector’s intellectual property (IP) intensity. The European Patent Office reports that its Deep Tech Finder covers over 10 000 startups with European patent applications or granted patents. It also notes that startups holding patents are up to ten times more likely to attract investment.

Independent market forecasts indicate deep tech expansion at a strong pace.

 

Alongside IndustryARC’s high-growth projection, Mordor Intelligence estimates the deep tech market will grow from USD 2.29 billion in 2025 to USD 5.31 billion by 2030 at an 18.32% CAGR. Future Market Insights projects the market size to reach USD 3.86 billion by 2034 at an 18.7% CAGR.

The startup base shows depth and diversity across regions. Our database tracks 57 669 deep tech startups.

In India, NASSCOM reports that 25% of tech startups founded in 2023 leveraged deep tech. The country’s deep tech startup base has been growing at over 40% CAGR in recent years and expanding 3.5x since 2017.

Further, public programs add structure to late-stage commercialization. The European Innovation Council allocated EUR 300M for STEP Scale Up in 2026 to support large deep-tech funding rounds.

Readiness-based support also plays a role. The Seeds of Bravery program offers grants of up to EUR 50 000 for firms at technology readiness level (TRL) 7 or higher.

At the macro level, deep tech shows structural economic relevance. McKinsey estimates Europe’s deep-tech engine alone could create up to USD 1 trillion in enterprise value and as many as one million jobs by 2030. These projections position Deep Tech as a long-term driver of industrial and economic transformation rather than a cyclical trend.

 

 

Deep Tech in Practice: What Scalable Frontier Innovation Looks Like

Loon builds HTA-compliant Agentic AI Systems

Loon is a Canadian startup that develops HTA-compliant agentic AI systems for health technology assessment (HTA), health economics & outcomes research (HEOR), and market access decision automation.

The company’s autonomous AI agents screen scientific literature, synthesize evidence, and support dossier development. Its approach also eliminates task-specific pretraining and enforces procedural rigor aligned with HTA evidence standards.

The agents also combine structured workflows for automated systematic literature reviews (SLRs), indirect treatment comparisons (ITCs), value dossier assembly, and payer decision forecasting. This improves reproducibility and reduces manual bottlenecks.

For example, Loon’s autonomous agent, Loon Lens, autonomously performs title and abstract screening in systematic reviews validated against conventional processes.

It adheres to regulatory-aligned frameworks and guidance from agencies such as NICE and relevant good practice standards for AI in evidence synthesis, embedding compliance controls and auditability into the AI outputs.

This approach enhances efficiency and consistency in evidence generation and improves transparency in methodological execution. It also supports pharmaceutical and biotech stakeholders in preparing HTA submissions and payer engagement materials.

Quanfluence offers Photonics-based Quantum Hardware

Indian company Quanfluence builds photonics-based quantum hardware for quantum-enabled optimization and scalable quantum computing.

The company utilizes an electro-optical Ising machine that encodes NP-hard optimization tasks as QUBO problems. It then computes solutions through light-wave interactions in a combined hardware-software stack.

Further, Quanfluence’s continuous-variable photonic quantum computer follows a gate-based approach and leverages measurement-based quantum computing to scale to thousands of qubits while reducing cryogenic dependence.

The company raised a USD 2 million seed round led by pi Ventures in December 2024 and reported recognition as a “League of 10” winner at the Nasscom Emerge 50 Awards 2024.

Breaking provides a Plastic-Eating Microbe

Breaking is a US-based startup that uses engineered microorganisms and enzymes to digest plastic waste into organic end products.

The company identifies naturally derived microbes that metabolize chemicals and polymer-derived compounds in plastics. It then applies synthetic biology to enhance the degradation pathways for higher activity and broader substrate coverage.

The microbe supports multiple deployment formats across recycling process integration, landfill treatment, and managed environmental remediation.

The company pairs the biology with controlled distribution and monitoring workflows to support repeatable performance and traceable handling of engineered organisms.

This way, it converts mixed plastic waste streams into non-plastic organic outputs to reduce persistent plastic accumulation.

TGR makes Autonomous Disinfection Robots

US-based startup TGR builds autonomous disinfection robots. They deliver germicidal UV-C room disinfection for healthcare and other high-risk facilities.

The company’s ADIBOT A1 fully autonomous robot leverages proprietary SLAM-based navigation to map dynamic spaces in real time. It then positions itself across evenly distributed disinfection points through an AI-driven auto explore workflow.

The company applies 254 nm UV-C irradiation cycles to inactivate pathogens while reducing manual repositioning. Simultaneously, it offers the ADIBOT S1 as an intelligent stationary UV-C tower system that supports single-unit use or multi-tower linking to reduce shadowing across larger rooms and equipment-dense areas.

As a result, it reduces infection-risk operational burden in procedures across clinical and sterile environments.

LeO Space simplifies Earth Observation

LeO Space is a South Korean startup that develops Earth observation optical payloads for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations.

The company combines high-resolution Earth imagery with free-space laser optical communication terminals that move large volumes of data across satellite networks. This plug-and-play optics for CubeSats and smallsats supports missions like end-to-end space-optics engineering.

Which Deep Tech Domains Are Absorbing Capital, Talent & IP

 

 

1. Agentic AI

Agentic AI is the fastest-scaling trend in the deep tech ecosystem. Our data tracks 22 600 companies in this domain, and they employ 916 700 people. The sector added 648 employees in the last year. It also shows a 31.52% annual growth rate.

External indicators show a similar acceleration. Gartner forecasts that agentic AI will drive 15% of day-to-day work decisions and appear in 33% of enterprise software applications by 2028, up from under 1% in 2024.

BCG reports rapid enterprise uptake, with 35% of companies already using agentic AI and 44% planning to adopt it soon.

2. Quantum Computing

Our data identifies 22 900 companies in this domain. The workforce reaches more than 1.8 million employees. Headcount increased by 552 employees in the last year. The trend shows 3.37% annual growth, which suggests steady expansion.

External market data support a long-horizon trajectory. Grand View Research estimates the quantum computing market to reach USD 4.24B by 2030, reflecting multi-year growth driven by commercialization and platform access.

McKinsey projects that quantum computing could generate USD 28-72 billion in annual revenue by 2035, while the broader quantum technology stack could reach up to USD 97B.

3. AI Governance

AI governance is smaller in company count but grows faster than many deep tech segments. Our database tracks 2200 companies focused on governance. These firms employ 103 700 people. The domain added 60 employees in the last year and shows a 16.53% annual growth rate.

MarketsandMarkets estimates the AI governance market to reach USD 5.77 billion by 2029, which implies rapid expansion as enterprises formalize controls.

From Mega-Rounds to Public Capital: How Deep Tech Gets Funded

Deal Sizes and Funding Intensity

Large rounds are now common in frontier domains. In robotics, total investment reached over USD 9.7 billion within the first seven months of 2024.

Quantum technologies show a similar pattern. Recent rounds include USD 26.5 million for Quantum Circuits, USD 148 million for Origin Quantum, and AUD 940 million in government-backed funding for PsiQuantum.

These figures indicate that nine and ten-figure rounds are becoming standard in capital-intensive deep-tech fields.

Mega-rounds also extend beyond core infrastructure technologies. In 2025, XPANCEO, a deep-tech company developing smart contact lenses, raised USD 250 million in a Series A at a USD 1.35 billion valuation to reach unicorn status.

Deep Tech’s Share of Venture Capital

Source: BCG

 

Deep Tech now accounts for a growing share of global venture capital. Boston Consulting Group reports that deep tech’s share of VC funding increased from around 10% a decade ago to about 20% today.

 

Source: McKinsey

 

In Europe, deep tech attracts 44% of all technology investment, which highlights its central role in the region’s innovation and industrial strategy.

Regional Capital Momentum

In Singapore, deep tech startups raised USD 371 million across 56 deals in 2024, even as overall venture funding declined. Intermediate funding rounds increased by 56% year over year. This shows investor willingness to fund commercialization rather than only early experimentation.

Singapore also expanded its Startup SG Equity deep tech co-investment pool to over SGD 1 billion, with additional allocations targeted at frontier technologies.

India shows similar momentum. Indian deep tech startups raised USD 1.6 billion in 2024. It has already raised USD 1.06 billion across 137 equity rounds by mid-2025.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 340 venture-backed deep tech startups collectively represent an ecosystem value of USD 8 billion. Median round sizes are comparable to early-stage European deep-tech markets, especially in climate, agriculture, and healthcare.

Institutional and Structured Capital

Institutional investors play a growing role in deep tech scaleup financing. The European Tech Champions Initiative entered a second phase in 2025, with the EIB and EIF committing EUR 1.25 billion. Additionally, the EIF committed EUR 350 million to Kembara, a EUR 1 billion deep-tech and climate growth fund.

At earlier stages, the European Innovation Council Fund has invested over EUR 1 billion in 272 companies. It also mobilized an additional EUR 2.6 billion in co-investment.

How We Scoped the Market

This deep tech market outlook is grounded in analysis from the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 9M+ global companies, 25K+ technologies and trends, and more than 190M patents, news articles, and market reports. Rather than treating deep tech as a monolithic innovation category, the scope is deliberately capability-led and capital-aware.

The report maps how deep tech value creation is being operationalized across agentic AI, quantum technologies, advanced robotics, AI governance, and frontier infrastructure. It also accounts for the constraints that define these markets – long R&D cycles, high capex requirements, regulatory exposure, and talent scarcity.