Post by Uros Lekic, Ph.D.

Germany, Austria and Switzerland traditionally produced some of Europe’s strongest industrial institutions, engineering companies, science facilities and technical universities. This legacy is important today: university spinouts emerge near manufacturing clusters, technical founders sell into industrial customers early, and commercial validation often begins before large venture rounds arrive. Three observations: 1. Industrial proximity is structural in the region. Munich concentrates manufacturing: BMW Group, Siemens, MAN Truck & Bus SE. Basel anchors pharmaceuticals: Roche, Novartis. Vienna connects to materials and energy: voestalpine, AVL. 75% of German startups are B2B. 2. The research base is strong and productive. ETH Zürich and EPFL produced 61 spinoffs in 2024, raising CHF 710M combined. Fraunhofer IIS's 76 institutes generate spinouts with a 96% three-year survival rate. 3. Then there are constraints. Only 11% of German startups find corporates genuinely willing to cooperate at deal terms, in spite of 75% of them building B2B propositions. Late-stage capital is largely imported: 85% of Swiss deep tech funding comes from international investors, rising to 96% at late stage. Some of DACH's prominent deep tech success stories in our thesis include: Climeworks (climate), Sunfire (energy), ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE (health) and neustark (climate). We mapped where DACH produces deep tech companies, how industrial proximity shapes formation, and where constraints emerge. Read our full article below, and see more of our Atlas series on our Substack channel in comments.