European quantum start-ups are already delivering – How do we turn them into an industry?

Europe has created excellent conditions for developing world-class quantum technologies. What matters now is creating the conditions for genuine demand in quantum computing as well, writes Antti Vasara, chair of the board, SemiQon Technologies.

Ten years ago, on 12 November 2015, Aalto University in Finland issued a press release: students who had founded a start-up to commercialise the university’s satellite research had secured a seven-figure venture investment. Lifeline Ventures led the early-stage round, raising €2 million in private capital, while Business Finland added €1.7 million in public investment to support ICEYE’s product development.

This relatively modest blend of public and private risk capital allowed the company to accelerate at a decisive moment, as the market was opening amid the new-space technological shift. Two years later, ICEYE launched its first radar satellite. It has since become a global leader, strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy in space.

The ICEYE story matters now because it shows that Europe succeeds when public and private capital converge early around breakthrough science. Quantum will require the same kind of conviction.

Space dynamics in quantum
ICEYE would not exist in its current form had private investors and academia not recognised the scale of the breakthrough at the right moment. With support from both public and private capital, it created an entirely new market, opening access to satellite data for a new customer base.

The same dynamics that transformed the space sector — miniaturisation, cost reductions and agile start-ups — are now emerging in quantum technologies. The first "ICEYEs" of the quantum sector have already been founded, and Europe still has an opportunity to build the entire value chain of a globally competitive quantum industry.

As the performance of individual quantum computers improves, the surrounding industrial base will generate innovations far beyond quantum computing itself. Companies developing quantum technologies are already seeing demand emerge long before we reach a “million-qubit” system.

We see this early demand in the Finnish quantum cluster, including Bluefors, IQM and SemiQon. For example, cryo-CMOS chips designed by SemiQon can already be deployed in space applications, solving key challenges associated with operating current technologies in extremely cold conditions.

We see growing demand in HPC (High Performance Computing) including data centres, AI servers and Supercomputers. Operating HPC systems in cold environments, rather than operating them at room temperature will have lower power consumption and energy cost.
What can we learn from the past?

The quantum industry will not be built on a single quantum computer or one modality that “wins it all”. Like any industrial sector, it relies on a broad technical base: cryogenic systems, control electronics, silicon quantum chips, quantum networks, error-correction systems, semiconductor-grade fabrication, middleware and application-layer algorithms.

Europe has seen this pattern before. The rise of GSM offers a crucial lesson: GSM succeeded because Europe first created a clear, cross-border standard and then a unified demand signal, as national telecom operators committed to purchasing interoperable solutions. This generated the critical mass on which innovation, private investment and global markets could scale.

Quantum needs the same foundation: interoperable standards, early pan-European initiatives (EuroHPC, testbeds) and coordinated demand from major industrial users in energy, chemicals, aerospace and security.

Time is not on the EU’s side
As the EU’s quantum strategy enters its implementation phase, we are living through a
defining moment for European technological sovereignty. Yet the pace of decision-making remains troubling.

It is worrying that implementation may slip to the next EU budget cycle in 2028. Time is not on Europe’s side. The time to act is now, as market demand is beginning to emerge.
The EU must determine how public investment can best create the conditions for organic market growth and attract European venture capital to increase its risk appetite at the earliest stages of disruption.

Too often, Europe’s challenge is that it fails to encourage private capital to take risks early enough. We must learn to see the EU as a genuine single market and a cross-border growth platform, not a battleground for national interests. Only then can deep-tech companies scale globally.

Europe does not lack deep-tech research expertise, world-class infrastructure or capital. What it lacks is the willingness to take risks and the confidence to build markets before they exist. It lacks the courage to commercialise solutions whose demand is still in formation.

Europe can still secure full strategic autonomy in quantum technology. But doing so demands speed, execution and a sharper focus on enabling industrial-scale demand within the single market.

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