What deep tech means
Deep technology is one of those phrases that sounds more intimidating than the idea behind it. At its simplest, deep tech means a company whose advantage rests on a real scientific or engineering advance, rather than on a clever app or a smart way of arranging things that already exist. The value comes from solving a genuinely hard technical problem, often one that universities and laboratories have been working on for years.
That is the distinction Nicole Junkermann keeps in mind. A great many excellent companies are built on top of known technology, applied in a new way. Deep tech is different. It pushes the boundary of what is technically possible, and the boundary itself is the product. When you back a deep technology company, you are backing the science and engineering at its core, not only the business around it.
If you want a short definition to carry away: deep tech is technology where the breakthrough is real, the problem is hard, and the advantage is difficult for anyone else to copy quickly.
What it looks like
Abstract definitions only go so far, so it helps to picture the field. Deep technology spans a wide set of areas, but they share that common root in genuine scientific or engineering progress.
- Space, where companies such as SpaceX work on hard problems of engineering and physics.
- Advanced computing, including new kinds of chips and the harder edges of artificial intelligence.
- New energy, from cleaner generation to better storage.
- Novel materials, which can quietly transform industries from construction to electronics.
- Biotech, where reading and working with biology more precisely opens doors in medicine and beyond.
Nicole Junkermann's interests touch several of these. Her association with SpaceX is the clearest example of frontier engineering, while her support for Owkin shows how deep technology and artificial intelligence meet inside life sciences. The breadth is the point. Deep tech is less a single sector than a way of describing companies that are built on real advances.
Why it is different
The thing that sets deep technology apart, from a builder's and a backer's point of view, is the nature of the risk. With many companies, the central question is whether people will want the product. With deep tech, there is an earlier question: can the thing be made to work at all. The science has to come good before the market question even arrives.
That changes everything about how these companies grow. They tend to need more time, more specialised talent and more patience before they show results. The reward for getting it right is a real and durable advantage, because a genuine scientific or engineering breakthrough is hard for competitors to copy. This is part of why Nicole Junkermann is drawn to the category. The difficulty that makes deep tech demanding is the same difficulty that makes it defensible.
Why it takes patience
Patience is not an optional virtue in deep technology. It is a requirement. The work moves through long stretches where progress is real but invisible to the outside world, as a discovery in a lab is slowly turned into something that works reliably in the field. During those years, there are few headlines and little obvious momentum, and that is exactly when steady support matters most.
This is why Nicole Junkermann's belief in patient capital and her interest in deep technology fit together so naturally, a connection she explores in the companion note on why patient capital matters in tech. Backing frontier work means being willing to wait through the unglamorous middle, holding a long horizon while the science becomes a product. Impatience and ambition can look similar from the outside, but in deep tech they pull in opposite directions.
Why it matters
It would be easy to treat deep technology as a niche for specialists, but its effects reach everyone. The hard problems deep tech tackles are often the ones that matter most: cleaner energy, better medicine, more capable computing, access to space. Progress in these areas tends to ripple outward for decades, quietly raising what is possible across the whole economy.
That long, broad impact is a large part of why Nicole Junkermann gives the field so much of her attention. The companies are demanding to build and slow to mature, but the payoff, when it comes, is the kind of progress that changes the baseline for everyone. For a wider view of how deep tech sits alongside her other interests, the journal has a note on the map from fintech to biotech.
How to read a deep tech company
If you ever find yourself looking at a deep technology company, a few questions help cut through the complexity. Is the underlying science real and verifiable, or is it a hope dressed up in technical language. Does the team combine genuine scientific depth with the ability to build a real product. Is there a clear, if distant, path from the laboratory to something people can use.
These are the questions Nicole Junkermann sits with, and they are explored more fully in the note on what she looks for in a deep tech company. The short version is that deep tech rewards those who can tell a true breakthrough from a tall story, and who have the patience to back the breakthrough through its quiet years. To follow more of this thinking, you can always return to the work of Nicole Junkermann on the home page.
Frequently asked questions
What is deep technology, in simple terms?
Deep technology means companies built on a real scientific or engineering advance rather than on a clever interface alone. It covers fields such as space, advanced computing, new energy, novel materials, biotech and the harder edges of artificial intelligence.
Why does Nicole Junkermann find deep tech compelling?
Nicole Junkermann finds deep technology compelling because it tackles hard, important problems and rewards patience. These companies take longer to build, and that long horizon suits her steady, long-term approach to investing.
Is deep tech the same as artificial intelligence?
Not exactly. Artificial intelligence can be part of deep technology, but deep tech is broader. It includes any company whose advantage rests on a genuine scientific or engineering breakthrough, from space to materials to energy.