Elaia doubles down on Europe’s deep tech pipeline
Elaia, a long-running European venture capital firm focused on science-led startups, has announced the final close of its third deep tech seed fund, DTS3, at €134 million. The vehicle is roughly twice the size of the firm’s earlier deep tech funds, underscoring growing investor appetite for European companies built on academic and research breakthroughs.
The fund will target pre-seed and seed-stage B2B startups emerging from major research organisations and universities. Elaia said it is working with partners including PSL Université, INRIA, CNRS, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Max Planck Foundation, aiming to tighten the link between laboratory discovery and commercial scale.
Track record of lab-to-market outcomes
Over more than two decades, Elaia has backed companies rooted in scientific advances. Prior deep tech bets include Aqemia (computational drug discovery) and Alice & Bob (fault-tolerant quantum computing). The firm also pointed to exits such as Gleamer, acquired by RadNet for $230 million, and Mablink Bioscience, acquired by Eli Lilly.
Early deployments and ticket sizes
Although the final close was announced this week, DTS3 has been investing since its first close of €60 million in March 2024 and has backed 11 startups across computing, life sciences and industrial innovation. Examples include Germany’s Proxima Fusion (stellarator-based fusion power), France’s GetVocal (auditable enterprise conversational agents), and Switzerland’s Mimic (physical intelligence for factories).
Elaia plans to invest roughly €1 million to €13 million per company across hubs including France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Switzerland. Backers include Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, Institut Pasteur, MGEN and MACSF. Managing Partner Xavier Lazarus said the firm is in an “intense deployment phase,” while Partner Anne-Sophie Carrese said European deep tech is “reaching escape velocity.”
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