Deep tech startups, those that develop substantial technical innovations, are booming around the world. According to Dealroom, in 2018, European high-tech companies received more than €8 billion in funding and in 2019, more than 100 of them managed to attract venture capital support. While it is true that many of these companies are based in the UK and Western Europe, the Balkan region is also seeing a growing number of companies solving complex problems using cutting-edge technology.
But first, what is deep tech? The term was coined in 2014 by Indian investor and entrepreneur Swati Chaturvedi and refers to engineering or scientific innovation that provides significant advances over existing technologies. Examples include, but are not limited to: autonomous vehicles, Hyperloop, space technology, life sciences and biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, AR/VR and computing quantum. Startups operating in these sectors differ from companies like Airbnb and Uber, which are disrupting industries through new business models rather than new technologies.
Accuser
The company: Started in 2013, Accuser was one of the first to use machine learning in the audio software market. In a word, the company has developed a set of tools to help beginner users easily create audio and video content with excellent sound quality.
Country: Greece
Vertical: Machine learning
Funding: €3.5 million
Increase
The company: Increase is a precision agriculture company that offers an alternative to costly drone and satellite data. Its augmented farming technology adapts to already owned equipment and scans fields to automatically decide how much fertilizer each individual crop needs. According to tests conducted by the University of Thessaly in Greece, Augmenta devices use 13% fewer chemicals.
Country: Greece
Vertical: Computer vision, IoT
Funding: €2.7 million
Biomyc
The company: Biomyc started in 2017 as a sustainable packaging company developing environmentally friendly composite materials – for example by combining agricultural residues and the structure of mushroom roots. The startup is also currently working with Mercedes-Benz’s production planning department on replacing automotive parts made from 3D printable and industrially compostable plant-based plastic.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Biotechnology, advanced materials
Funding: ~ €92k
Cyberswarm
The company: For several years, Cyberswarm has developed a neuromorphic system-on-a-chip to help organizations with cybersecurity and ensure secure communication between connected devices. The company collaborates with the Romanian National Institute of Materials Physics and the National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies in Romania.
Country: Romania
Vertical: Neural networks
Funding: €1 million
Déveliot
The company: Déveliot develops hardware sensing systems that help municipalities make data-driven decisions about air quality and water system management. The company already has 33 of its air quality monitoring stations installed in Sofia and Ohrid, and telecommunications companies like Telelink, Vivacom and A1 are part of its partnership network.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: IoT
Funding: N / A
Dronamics
The company: Dronamics aims to transform the logistics sector with a fixed-wing cargo drone – a drone with a wingspan of 16m which can transport up to 350 kg over 2,500km at a speed of 200 km/h. The company has already built a 1:4 scale prototype.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Aerospace
Funding: 1+m€ (unofficial)
EnduroSat
The company: EnduroSat designs and manufactures nanosatellites for commercial and scientific missions. In 2018, the company successfully launched and activated a satellite into space and is currently co-developing a service that is expected to enable the transmission of up to 50 times more data from low Earth orbit (LEO) and reduce the cost per gigabyte downloaded up to 15. times.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Aerospace
Funding: €4.2 million
Gideon brothers
The company: Founded in 2017, Gideon brothers develops autonomous robots for work in warehouses and other industrial logistics facilities. The robots can lift up to 800 kg and require minimal modifications to the existing environment. Ultimately, Gideon Brothers, which already serves clients like DB Schenker, aims to address the talent shortage in the supply chain sector: DHL study shows demand to provide a ration of skilled professionals is 6:1.
Country: Croatia
Vertical: Robotics, Deep Learning, Computer Vision
Funding: €4.9 million
I assemble the mechanics
The company: I assemble the mechanics designs vertical robotic mobility devices for people with lower limb disabilities, reducing health problems resulting from prolonged sitting in a wheelchair. In 2019, the company won the CESA award for best social impact startup.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Robotics
Funding: 300K€
Micar Innovation
The company: Presenting itself as a “factory for discovering new drug molecules”, Micar Innovation focused on non-clinical proofs of concept (PoC) in the area of preclinical R&D and Hit-to-Lead (H2L) projects in areas such as neurology, oncology, cardiovascular, dermatology and rare diseases.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: biotechnology
Funding: N / A
ORamaVR
The company: Since 2016, ORamaVR has developed a gamified virtual reality platform to help train surgeons. Medical students can use it at home or in college to become familiar with various surgical procedures, including knee and hip replacements, emergency trauma scenarios, and dental implants.
Country: Greece
Vertical: Virtual reality
Funding: €550k
Pollenity
The company: In its early years, the founded in 2014 business was working on a combination of hardware devices and software solutions to help beekeepers remotely monitor the health of their colonies. BeeBot, a smart device equipped with sensors, could be installed in hives to collect data such as temperature, humidity, movement, etc. and transfer them in an understandable form to the beekeeper’s dashboard. In early 2019, the company changed its business model from B2B to B2C and began paying more attention to inexperienced beekeepers.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: IoT
Funding: ~ €1.2 million
To print
The company: With the long-term vision of bioprinting living organs, today To print works on R&D projects with dental clinics and provides pharmaceutical companies with bone tissue graft that can be used to test drugs in preclinical trials.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Biotechnology, 3D printing
Funding: ~ €1 million (unofficial)
BenefitsFit
The company: BenefitsFit, is a company providing hardware and software solutions enabling the rapid, accurate and cost-effective delivery of prosthetic sockets. Some of its clients include a large hospital in Ontario, a European military rehabilitation center, as well as clinics in Singapore, Australia, Japan and South Africa. ProsFit recently won the inaugural Toyota Inclusive Mobility Awards.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Medical technology, 3D printing
Funding: €4 million
QuarkVR
The company: QuarkVR is a virtual reality streaming company working in several directions – its main product is a software solution that allows content to be seamlessly streamed to wireless VR headsets. However, the startup also has partnerships with Orange and Deutsche Telekom, exploring use cases such as VR calling, meetings and factory training.
Country: Bulgaria
Vertical: Virtual reality, 5G
Funding: €680,000
UIP Path
The company: UIP Path has developed an enterprise robotic process automation (RPA) platform that leverages artificial intelligence and automates repetitive, mind-numbing tasks to improve productivity and employee satisfaction. The company’s clients are as diverse as NASA, EY, Google, McDonald’s and Duracell.
Country: Romania
Vertical: Hyperautomation, Machine Learning
Funding: €891 million
Note that lists are never complete. If we missed a business that you think should be on the list, please let us know at pressroom@trendingtopics.bg or via a Facebook or LinkedIn message.