Deep tech refers to innovations based on scientific research and technological breakthroughs. They often emerge in laboratories, research institutions or universities and have the potential to transform entire industries and solve global challenges.
Berlin is one of Europe’s leading deep tech locations. Every year, innovations that address challenges in areas such as decarbonization, digitalization, health and security are developed here and turned into marketable solutions.
With the Deep Tech Berlin Agenda, the State of Berlin is focusing on five strategic technology fields: artificial intelligence; biotechnology; microelectronics, photonics and quantum technologies; advanced materials and manufacturing; and software technologies.
“With the Deep Tech Agenda, we are bringing together Berlin’s strengths in science, research and business and creating the conditions for technological breakthroughs to be translated more quickly into applications, companies and sustainable growth.”
Franziska Giffey, Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises
Deep tech in Brain City Berlin
With around 500 new start-ups a year, around 30 percent of all German AI start-ups and a unique density of research institutions, Brain City Berlin offers ideal conditions for deep tech start-ups.
Specialized incubators, close ties to universities and non-university research institutions, and an active investor network make Berlin a place where research becomes products. In 2024, around 30 percent of all venture capital invested in Germany went to Berlin.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers enormous potential for innovation and value creation in almost every field of application.
It is the central key technology for greater productivity and growth in industry and services, creating new foundations for the development of products, processes and business models. At the same time, the development of more powerful and energy-efficient AI models, the creation of secure, explainable, trustworthy and domain-specific AI solutions, and the continuous advancement of data center infrastructure, chips, cloud technologies, LLM architectures and applications offer major opportunities to actively shape technological leaps, for example in agentic AI.
As one of Europe’s leading locations for AI innovation, Berlin has strong R&D players and robust structures.
© Berlin Partner | Scholvien
Biotechnology
Biotechnology makes biological systems technically usable and is therefore an essential foundation for innovation in medicine, industrial manufacturing, and sustainable environmental, energy and water management.
With its exceptional density of internationally visible research institutions and companies, proven strengths in genetic engineering, cell engineering and bioinformatics, and established structures for clinical trials, Berlin is ideally positioned to turn this potential into marketable innovations.
© iStock | John D
Microelectronics, Photonics & Quantum Technologies
Microelectronics, photonics and quantum technologies lay the foundations for the next generation of high-performance, energy-efficient and secure digital and cyber-physical systems. Optics and photonics innovations from Berlin are key to high-performance optical communication, sensing, spectroscopy, measurement and imaging systems, and laser technologies. Microelectronics provides the technological basis for the next generation of semiconductors, energy-efficient computing architectures, advanced wireless and sensor technologies, as well as microsystems engineering and power electronics.
In Berlin, the emerging field of quantum technologies builds on existing expertise and, through quantum communication, computing and sensing, opens up new approaches to data transmission, faster computing and high-precision methods.
© Berlin Partner | gretchen
Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Competitive industries need materials that are lighter, more stable and more resource-efficient, as well as manufacturing processes that are more flexible and precise, digitally and circularly integrated, and more highly automated. Innovative materials and production technologies deliver both: new material properties that fundamentally change products and applications, and manufacturing processes, from additive manufacturing and robotics to digital production systems, that modernize industrial processes.
The technologies described, including innovative materials, additive manufacturing, AI, robotics and digital production systems, belong to the international innovation field of advanced manufacturing. Berlin has growing expertise in several sub-areas and is developing the next generation of data-driven, flexible production systems. Digital technologies play an increasingly important role here. This also shows how artificial intelligence opens up new potential for data-driven process control, quality assurance and adaptive manufacturing processes.
Software Technologies
In an increasingly digital world, distributed ledger technologies (DLT), including blockchain, Web3 and related approaches, combined with cybersecurity, form the basis for secure, transparent and resilient digital systems. These technologies are highly relevant to all applications that depend on a high level of data security and trust, from finance and public administration to industry and defense. DLT also holds great potential for trustworthy AI applications and systems.
As a decentralized layer of trust and governance, these technologies can help make data and model processes traceable, provide tamper-proof documentation and support the transparent implementation of regulatory requirements.
Berlin offers a unique combination in this technology field: one of Europe’s most active blockchain and Web3 communities, a broad research base in cybersecurity, close proximity to federal and state administrations as users and clients of security-critical solutions, and a dynamic business environment across a wide range of application areas.
