Scaling Deep Tech
Deep-tech innovations are increasingly shaping the future of industrial value creation. Start-ups in this field develop new technologies and transform entire industries by translating scientific breakthroughs into market-ready applications. Their contribution becomes particularly relevant when solutions prove themselves not only in the laboratory but also under real industrial conditions.
THE SPARK 2026 focuses on innovation that has proven itself under real industrial conditions. What matters is the idea itself combined with its robust implementation in the market, in operational processes, and across complex value chains.
The award recognizes companies that combine digital technologies, such as AI, with physical innovations. The goal is to measurably strengthen the economic performance, technological capability, and structural resilience of the DACH region.
Emphasis is placed on strategic technology fields such as:
- Advanced computing and quantum technologies
- Critical infrastructure and technological sovereignty
- Health infrastructure and bio-innovation
- Industrial AI and robotics
- Resilient energy and raw material systems
THE SPARK seeks out start-ups that shape the transition into the scaling phase through resilient partnerships with industry, investors, research institutions, and public stakeholders, sustainably anchoring their innovations in markets and ecosystems.
The Finalists 2026
Finalist 2026
AI systems learn using data, but that data is particularly sensitive in the healthcare sector. Apheris AI is developing the industry’s largest federated data networks with this in mind. Within these networks, pharmaceutical companies train AI models for drug discovery using proprietary, industry-wide datasets that never leave their respective data environments. While partners on the Apheris platform drive the development of increasingly powerful models, sensitive data and intellectual property remain protected at all times.
Finalist 2026
deepset enables government agencies and companies to build, manage, and continuously improve sovereign AI systems. In doing so, deepset’s customers—including the European Commission and Bosch—always retain full control over the model, infrastructure, and data they use. With its open-source framework Haystack, deepset is driving a global innovation ecosystem that designs powerful and trustworthy AI applications and demonstrates how Europe can become more digitally independent.
Finalist 2026
As a leading laser fusion company, Focused Energy aims to transition fusion technology from research to industrial application. In fusion, hydrogen nuclei fuse at high temperatures to form helium, releasing an enormous amount of energy in the process: one gram of fusion fuel delivers as much energy as eleven metric tons of coal. Fusion is a climate-neutral technology of the future with great potential. Focused Energy plans to build the first laser fusion power plant in Biblis by the mid-2030s.
Finalist 2026
JUA AI is developing a novel AI model that learns the laws of physics directly from measurement data. The goal is to create a universal simulation engine for physical reality that can be used to make more accurate predictions. Starting with the atmosphere, JUA AI already operates a leading weather forecasting model. JUA is now gradually expanding this underlying technology to encompass the entire Earth system, with the goal of simulating, for example, the fluid dynamics around vehicles and turbines, as well as wildfires and floods, in the future.
Finalist 2026
LIDROTEC develops and markets laser systems for wafer dicing in the semiconductor industry. When cutting microchips from semiconductor material – usually silicon – conventional processes result in up to 10 percent scrap. Thanks to an innovative liquid-laser process, users of LIDROTEC systems reduce this material loss to nearly zero percent. This saves costs, increases productivity, and also has the potential to significantly strengthen the European semiconductor value chain.
Finalist 2026
Proxima Fusion is Europe’s leading stellarator company and the first spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. The company is developing fusion power plants based on QI-HTS stellarators and building on the scientific breakthroughs of the Wendelstein-7-X program. With Alpha, Proxima Fusion—supported by more than 50 industry partners—is developing a demonstrator for net energy from fusion and aims to build the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant in the 2030s.
Finalist 2026
Q.ANT is ushering in a new era of energy-efficient computing: The company’s photonic processors use light instead of electricity for computationally intensive operations in the fields of AI and high-performance computing. This allows complex calculations to be performed with significantly lower energy consumption. In doing so, Q.ANT lays the foundation for a more sustainable AI infrastructure and helps meet the growing demand for computing power without causing data center energy consumption to rise at the same rate.
Finalist 2026
Qdrant creates the “memory” that enables AI systems to instantly find the right answer—even among billions of options. Every product description, photo, or document can be transformed into a kind of digital fingerprint. The Qdrant engine stores and compares millions of these fingerprints per second, enabling chatbots, search engines, and recommendation tools to deliver the correct result—not just a close guess. Based on the open-source model, hundreds of thousands of developers worldwide are already using Qdrant’s core engine.
Finalist 2026
In the future, new physical products will be simulated and developed using AI, almost as quickly as software. Sphere Energy is committed to this approach and builds custom AI applications for industry that are trained using each customer’s data within their IT infrastructure. To do this, Sphere Energy consolidates and makes usable distributed development data from test benches or simulations, as well as field data. The AI covers every step of product development and can, for example, significantly accelerate battery testing and thus the market launch of battery-powered products.
Finalist 2026
An electrified energy system characterized by volatility needs one thing above all else: flexibility. This is where terralayr comes in. On the one hand, the company is the fastest-growing operator of large-scale battery storage systems in Germany. On the other hand, terralayr is a technology provider that uses its LAYR platform to make energy flexibility tradable and scalable. In this way, terralayr creates a flexibility cloud for renewable energy that helps ensure grid stability and balance electricity prices.
Contact
If you have any questions about The Spark Award 2025, please feel free to contact us.
Leonie
Gorlt
Manager Concept & Development Awards
