Deep tech and finance
Deep tech is technology built on a scientific discovery or an engineering breakthrough: quantum computers, new chips, fusion reactors, new materials. Finance meets it from two sides. Banks and asset managers use parts of it, quantum computing and AI compute first, and investors fund it with large tickets and long holding periods. In Germany a good part of that money comes from public funds that invest next to private investors. Dated events are in the calendar below.
What deep tech means
The term goes back to Swati Chaturvedi of the investment platform Propel(x), who used it in 2014 for companies founded on a scientific discovery or a meaningful engineering innovation, as BBVA sums it up. A fintech app is new software on technology that already exists. A deep tech company changes the technology itself, so it spends years in research before it has a product and needs labs and hardware before it has revenue.
That profile decides who pays for it. A software startup can reach revenue on a few million euros. A quantum computer or a fusion plant needs tens or hundreds of millions before the first sale, and the investor waits longer for a return. The European Deep Tech Report of Lakestar, Walden Catalyst and Dealroom counts 20.3 billion dollars of venture capital for European deep tech in 2025, a record 32 percent of all European venture capital, with Germany third behind the UK and France.
Where deep tech meets banking and markets
Quantum computing is the deep tech field with the clearest use in finance. HSBC tested quantum and classical computing together with IBM on production-scale data from the European corporate bond market and reported up to 34 percent better predictions of whether a trade would be filled at the quoted price. The bank calls it a trial, not a system in production. Portfolio optimization and risk simulation are the other candidates, covered on the page on quantum computing in Frankfurt finance.
The same machines threaten the public-key cryptography behind online banking and card payments, which is why banks have started the move to post-quantum cryptography. That work runs on today's computers and has deadlines. AI compute is the third meeting point: the accelerators, data centers and models a bank needs for its own AI, covered on AI infrastructure in banking, sovereign AI and AI gigafactories. Fusion, batteries and biotech reach finance mainly as investments.
Who funds deep tech in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
The federal government launched the Zukunftsfonds with 10 billion euros, and according to KfW its Frankfurt subsidiary KfW Capital coordinates the building blocks, which invest alongside private investors on the same terms. One of them is the DeepTech & Climate Fonds, which puts 5 to 50 million euros into a single company. SPRIND, the federal agency for breakthrough innovation in Leipzig, may hold stakes in companies and was an investor in the Series A of the laser fusion company Focused Energy, whose plant is planned in Biblis in Hesse.
In Austria the federal promotional bank aws runs a Preseed and Seedfinancing program for deep tech (in German), with grants and seed financing that is repaid only on success. In Switzerland UBS and Swisscom founded the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation, covered on deep tech in Switzerland. How private funds, corporate investors and these public programs work together is on deep tech venture capital.
Upcoming Finance Loop events
Deep tech at Finance Loop
Finance Loop co-organized the Frankfurt Quantum Finance Forum at Frankfurt School with the Deutsche Bundesbank, IBM and Finteda, a conference on what quantum computing can do in finance and how the industry prepares for it. Finance Loop was a media partner of CONF3RENCE 2026 in Dortmund, which had a DeepTech stage next to its tracks on tokenization, stablecoins and AI. Conferences with investor programs for deep tech are listed on deep tech conferences.
What is deep tech?
Deep tech is the name for companies and technologies that rest on a new scientific or engineering result, such as quantum computing, semiconductors, fusion or biotech. They need years of research before the first product and more capital than a software company.
What is the difference between deep tech and high tech?
High tech covers every product built with advanced technology, including software that uses methods known for years. Deep tech is the narrower group whose product depends on a research result that did not exist before. A trading app is high tech; a quantum processor is deep tech.
What are examples of deep tech in finance?
Quantum algorithms for bond trading and portfolio optimization, the migration to post-quantum cryptography, and the AI accelerators and data centers banks use for their own models. On the investment side, banks and insurers put money into deep tech funds and growth rounds.
Is deep tech the same as fintech?
No. Fintech is financial services built with technology, usually software. Deep tech is a type of technology that can be used in any industry. The two meet where a bank uses a deep tech result, such as a quantum computer for pricing, or where a fintech builds on one.
Deep tech and Finance Loop
Finance Loop brings quants and security architects who work on quantum computing and AI compute in finance together with the investors who fund deep tech, at its events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. Finance Loop membership starts on the membership page, and a bank, fund or research team can host an event on its deep tech topic.
Finance Loop offers partners a way to reach this audience by sponsoring a meetup or through the partner program.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.