There is a category of European venture capital that is genuinely different from everything else: funds that invest in companies where the technology is hard, the development cycle is long, and the moat is rooted in physics or biology rather than network effects or brand. These are deep tech funds, and for most of the past decade they occupied a niche — respected but undercapitalised, appreciated but misunderstood by the LP community that writes the largest cheques.
Klaus Grössinger has been in this space for more than 16 years. As a General Partner at Onsight Ventures — a pan-European early-stage fund built around what the firm calls exponential technologies — he has watched the European deep tech landscape transform from a cottage industry into one of the continent’s most compelling investment theses. His view, sharpened by years of backing science-based founders from Innsbruck to the continent’s research capitals, is that Europe’s moment in deep tech is not a trend. It is structural.
The Exponential Technology Thesis
Onsight Ventures focuses on what it calls exponential technologies: quantum computing, synthetic biology, and advanced computing and semiconductors. These are not arbitrary choices. They are the categories where fundamental breakthroughs in science are compressing timelines from laboratory curiosity to commercial deployment — where exponential improvement curves are beginning to intersect with real-world infrastructure and industrial need.
Quantum computing is perhaps the clearest example. A decade ago, the question was whether fault-tolerant quantum computers would ever be built. Today the question is which industries — pharmaceuticals, logistics, financial modelling, cybersecurity — will be disrupted first, and at what speed. The companies building the middleware, the error-correction software, and the application layers on top of quantum hardware are largely European, and many of them are still at the stage where patient, scientifically literate capital makes the difference between scaling and stalling.
Synthetic biology presents a similar compression. The cost of DNA synthesis has fallen by orders of magnitude over the past decade. What was once a research laboratory tool is now a manufacturing platform — for pharmaceuticals, materials, food ingredients, and biosensors. European synthetic biology companies carry a structural advantage in regulatory credibility and in access to the industrial biotechnology supply chains that are concentrated in Germany, the Nordics, and the Alpine region.
The Founder Grössinger Backs
Grössinger’s own background shapes his investment lens. Before joining venture capital full-time, he founded and ran a life sciences and chemistry research spin-off, navigating the path from academic prototype to commercial product. He knows what it costs — in time, capital, and organisational resilience — to move a science-based idea through the valley of death between proof-of-concept and market readiness.
This experience informs a preference for founders with deep domain expertise and a realistic view of development timelines. The founders Onsight Ventures backs are not building for the next funding round. They are building for the defensibility that only comes when the science is hard enough that competitors cannot simply replicate it with a larger team and a larger budget. In quantum and synbio, that kind of defensibility is achievable. It requires capital that understands the difference between a setback and a dead end — and that has the patience to stay in when others would exit.
The European Strategic Moment
The sectors Onsight Ventures backs are not just commercially interesting. They are strategically important. Quantum computing determines the future of encryption and drug discovery. Synthetic biology is rewriting the rules of materials and pharmaceuticals. Advanced semiconductors underpin every layer of the AI stack. For Grössinger, the convergence of these technologies with Europe’s declared priorities in digital sovereignty and industrial competitiveness creates a once-in-a-generation alignment between scientific capability and political will.
Europe’s deep tech companies have long suffered from a capital gap between their scientific ambition and the funding available to realise it. Patient, technically literate investors willing to stay through long development cycles have been scarce. Onsight Ventures was built precisely to fill that gap — and Grössinger’s background as a founder in the life sciences gives him a first-hand understanding of why that gap exists and what it takes to bridge it.
Implications
- For deep tech founders: Onsight Ventures’ thesis validates the funding environment for European science-based companies. Founders in quantum, synbio, and advanced computing who have struggled to find investors who understand their timelines and technology should note that the capital is now available — from funds specifically structured to handle the complexity.
- For the AI ecosystem: The intersection of deep tech and AI is where the most interesting applications are being built — quantum-accelerated machine learning, AI-designed biological systems, AI-optimised semiconductor architectures. Grössinger’s perspective at the conference will illuminate how these convergences are being capitalised at the early stage.
- For conference attendees: Expect a detailed investor’s map of European exponential technology — the sectors, the geographies, the founding profiles, and the capital structures that are defining the next wave of European deep tech leadership.
Klaus Grössinger joins Human × AI on May 19, 2026, in Vienna.