Inaugural Extreme Tech Challenge program at 2024 TNW Conference a ‘really big success!’
TNW Conference on June 20, 2024 one of Europe’s leading tech festivals, was THE place to be with 10,000 attendees, more than 190 speakers and 200+ companies exhibiting. Our first startup competition at TNW Conference 2024 was, as LUMO Labs’ Andy Lürling put it, a “really big success.”
This was our first program collaboration at TNW Conference, and, once again, we found ourselves at the nexus of innovation, entrepreneurship and impact. Our mission at TNW was three-fold:
- Strengthen and expand the deep tech ecosystem, including connecting founders, corporate executives, industry experts, investors, governments and knowledge institutions.
- Share knowledge from global industry tech leaders on the immense challenges and opportunities in semiconductor and AI innovation in the next few years and discuss what’s on the horizon for European deep tech startups from the investors’ point of view.
- Showcase the most promising deep-tech startups with the technology, teams and ambition to build companies that will have a significant impact on our world. These are the companies of the future.
We can say unequivocally, “Mission accomplished.”
Left, Lars Reger, CTO & EVP of NXP Semiconductors and XTC Board Member, and Young Sohn, Chairman of the Samsung Semiconductor Advisory Board, Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures and Co-founder of Extreme Tech Challenge, middle; and right, Christina Criddle of the Financial Times, held a panel discussion on the Visions Main Stage.
The Extreme Tech Challenge (“XTC”) program on June 20 included a Fireside Chat: “Deep Tech Trends: What We Can Expect by 2030.” Christina Criddle, Financial Times, led the discussion with Lars Reger, CTO & EVP of NXP Semiconductors and XTC Board Member, and Young Sohn, Chairman of the Samsung Semiconductor Advisory Board, Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures and Co-founder of Extreme Tech Challenge.
The standing-room-only crowd at the Visions Main Stage hung on every word of the tech titans as they discussed in detail the future of semiconductor and AI innovation and how advancements will affect everyone across the globe.
They were candid about the vulnerability of the global supply chain, how data usage is going to explode and the opportunities – and challenges – this growth presents.
Key takeaways
- The semiconductor industry is expected to double in size over the next eight years, driven by demand by data centers and the 70 billion smart connected devices expected to come online over the next 10 years.
- Power demands for AI and data centers are projected to increase by 10% in the next five years, creating challenges for power generation and supply.
- Most power consumption in computing is due to data movement rather than compute itself.
- There’s a need for more efficient architectures to reduce power consumption in AI and computing.
- From “today” towards “the world that anticipates and automates” – bringing AI to the EDGE in a safe and secure way by using groundbreaking semiconductor innovations.
- The semiconductor industry requires long-term planning (5-8 years) and significant investment ($25-30 billion per plant).
- Deep tech development requires patience, long-term vision, and collaboration between industry and government.
- Specialized language models for specific applications and industries are expected to emerge.
- AI is becoming embedded in everyday life, similar to how the internet evolved.
- Future jobs will likely involve more oversight and management of AI systems rather than traditional roles.
- There are concerns about the global supply chain for semiconductors, with heavy reliance on a few countries such as Taiwan and Korea.
- Consumer adoption of AI technologies may be gradual, with initial skepticism giving way to acceptance as benefits become apparent.
- There are ongoing discussions about technology sovereignty and the strategic importance of the semiconductor industry.
- Predictions about AI adoption (e.g., self-driving cars) have often been overly optimistic in the short term but underestimated in the long term.
See the full video HERE.
After the Fireside Chat, there was off-the-charts networking at the TNW VIP Village. There was a flurry of activity in and out of the VIP Village, and we had a great time catching up with friends and partners and making new connections.
From left: Victoria Slivkoff, Cyril Vančura, Tommy Oehl and Harm de Vries.
The afternoon program included a deep dive on deep tech at the Growth Quarters Stage. XTC Executive Managing Director and Walden Catalyst Ventures Head of Ecosystem Victoria Slivkoff moderated a panel discussion: The State of European Deep Tech Panel with Cyril Vančura (imec.xpand), Thomas Oehl (Vsquared Ventures) and Harm de Vries (Innovation Industries). The leading European VCs represented more than €1 billion in recently closed funds, so the panel represented some of the most active investors of deep tech in Europe.
Key takeaways:
- Deep tech as an investment opportunity has been rising in the past few years. We often now look to deep tech to solve some of the biggest challenges society is facing. This wasn’t the case even 10 years ago.
- Victoria asked panelists if they agree European deep tech startups should have a U.S. presence. We heard a range of answers:
- Cyril noted that for a startup to be successful you need the tech, which the Europeans seem to have. But you also need the customers, and most customers will be in the U.S. or Asia. Startups, therefore, must have the global ambition to scale.
“You need to go where the money is, and in this case, that’s mostly in the U.S.”
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- Tommy Oehl’s answer was a bit different. He says startups should focus on what Europe is really good at, and that’s the science. For some of their portfolio companies, a U.S. presence is relevant, but he certainly does not think it’s mandatory to scale or be successful.
- Harm de Vries agreed with Tommy that in Europe the technology is world-class, but it’s a fragmented market. He thinks startups should focus on the technology and design and try to go to the U.S. quite quickly, where the market is larger, there is more entrepreneurship and better access to capital.
- Victoria asked panelists which technologies they’re focusing on or are interested in. It was unanimous and somewhat surprising: photonics. Tommy added Vsquared is also interested in techbio and space.
The panel also discussed LPs’ appetite for deep tech investments and how Europe can create the next ASML.
It was a fast-paced, insightful – and sometimes surprising – conversation about where Europe’s leading VCs are willing to invest capital. Short answer: deep tech.
You can watch the full panel discussion HERE.
Pitching Finals, from left: Erin Janklow, Pauliina Meskanen, Frank Kjerstein, Stiliyana Minkovska and Kinga Matuła.
Following the panel discussion, it was a fast and furious final pitching round at the Global Deep Tech Startup Competition, with the Top 5 Finalists delivering one-minute pitches followed by judges’ Q&A.
Andy Lürling, Founding Partner at LUMO Labs, welcomed the crowd at the Global Deep Tech Startup Competition.
Founding Partner of LUMO Labs, welcomed the crowd at the Growth Quarters Stage. He told the story of the first events he and Victoria planned – Deep Tech Connect, in Eindhoven, Netherlands and ChangeNow in Paris, showcasing impact-driven startups using emerging technologies and deep tech to solve grand challenges.
Last year, Andy was invited to join the TNW Advisory Board, and he said it was “natural” to connect XTC and TNW to plan the first deep tech startup competition in Amsterdam. Heartfelt thanks to Andy for our valuable partnership and for connecting us to TNW!
See the full pitch session HERE.
Nicolas Autret, Walden Catalyst Ventures, and Secorro Green, Extreme Tech Challenge, talk about the European deep tech ecosystem.
As the intense judge’s deliberation took place off-stage, XTC Director Secorro Green had a Fireside Chat with Nicolas Autret, General Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage deep tech VC investing across the U.S., Europe and Israel. Nicolas also co-authored The State of European Deep Tech Report (editions 2023 and 2022) with Dealroom and Lakestar.
Walden Catalyst, with its $600 million investment fund, invests in semiconductor ecosystem, AI and data infrastructure, AI-enabled biology 2.0, new materials and industrial robotics.
“We don’t look at technology for the sake of technology, but technology that can be applied to solve real world challenges.”
Nicolas laid out three “missing ingredients” to creating a leading deep tech ecosystem in Europe to “catch up with the U.S. and, eventually, China.”
- Europe has great strengths and amazing talent on the research, IP and production side. But to compete with Silicon Valley, we need more talent on the operators’ side. We need to leverage long-term experience of people who bring to startups the knowledge and expertise to help them scale.
- Another missing ingredient is funding. Each European country has public funding available. There are plenty of sophisticated investors at the seed and early stage level writing the first checks, but when deep tech companies need to raise 30-50 million euros, it becomes a serious challenge for European deep tech companies to find investors. “More than 50% of funding at Series C stage and beyond comes from non-European investors,” he said.
- The third missing ingredient is liquidity events, which applies not only to deep tech but other tech startups. Investors such as Walden Catalyst need a liquidity event, whether IPO or mergers and acquisitions. Many startups turning to U.S. corporates as opportunities because the corporates don’t yet have the cultural mindset of acquiring startups to feed innovation. They aren’t willing to write the big checks to acquire startups, nor do they know how to integrate the startups into their businesses.
Nicolas ended the discussion with a bit of a teaser. “It’s exciting to be in the Netherlands. In the next few weeks, we will close and announce our first investment in the Netherlands.” Stay tuned!
From left: Nicolas Autret, Secorro Green, Thomas Oehl, Marcus Hølland Eikeland, Frank Kjerstein, Kinga Matuła, Erin Janklow, Pauliina Meskanen, Andy Lürling and Victoria Slivkoff.
The winner of the Global Deep Tech Startup Competition – QurieGen – was announced as the fireworks went off. It was a dramatic and very exciting finish.
Congratulations to the Top 5 finalists:
⚡Calectra: patented material and process enabling high-temperature industrial furnaces to substitute renewable electricity for fossil fuels. Based in the U.S. 🇺🇸
♀ Matrix Health & Care: A product and service ecosystem using HD micro- cameras, wireless and AI to enable accurate and detailed gynecological self-examination replacing the 2,000+ year-old, torturous Speculum device. Based in the U.K. 🇬🇧
🚀 Parrots: POLLY is an AI-enhanced assistive platform offering cognitive and communication assistance for people with people with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s. Based in the U.S. 🇺🇸
💉 QurieGen: Decoding cellular responses to accelerate drug discovery. Based in The Netherlands. 🇳🇱
༄ REBLADE: Drone-based leading edge erosion repair of wind turbine blades. Designed for onshore, offshore and floating wind. 🇩🇰
The judges choose a winner. From left: Thomas Oehl, Andy Lürling and Marcus Hølland Eikeland.
Shout-out to our fabulous judges, who experienced a tough few minutes in choosing a winner of the Global Deep Tech Startup Competition!
- Marcus Hølland Eikeland, Program Director and Partner, Katapult
- Andy Lurling, Founding Partner, LUMO Labs
- Thomas Oehl, General Partner, Vsquared Ventures
We did manage to squeeze in some fun, co-hosting pre-event and post-event dinners with our partner LUMO Labs and other friends.
TNW Conference was an exceptionally well organized event, and we enjoyed working with the TNW team to put on a program full of great content and showcase five of the most promising startups in the deep tech space.
See all the photos and videos HERE.
