In Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technology

The Silent Rise of a Deeptech Powerhouse

Europe’s technology landscape is reshaping quickly. While attention often focuses on larger economies such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, a different cluster is establishing itself as the continent’s strategic engine for deeptech.

New analysis from the Tough Tech by the Tough Ten report, published by Tech.eu in 2025, shows that countries along Europe’s eastern and northern frontier are now advancing faster in defence, dual-use and next-generation technologies. Within this group, Finland has become one of the most important accelerators of deeptech momentum in Europe.

The Eastern Frontier Is Outpacing the Rest of Europe

The report highlights a surge in mission-critical innovation across ten nations in Europe’s eastern and northern frontier. These countries span the Baltic and Central European region and include states that are increasingly important to Europe’s security and technological resilience.

Key findings include the following:

• Tough-tech companies represented seven percent of all start-ups in these countries between 2019 and 2022, compared with five percent across the rest of Europe.
• By 2023–2025 this share rose to sixteen percent, while the rest of Europe reached ten percent.
• By 2025 more than half of all deeptech investment in Europe and almost one quarter of all venture capital funding is expected to flow into tough-tech activity in these frontier nations.

This marks a structural shift. Europe’s most strategically important technologies are increasingly being developed not in traditional power centres but in the eastern and northern regions that now anchor Europe’s security landscape.

Finland’s Deeptech Momentum

Finland sits at the forefront of this transformation. Its ecosystem continues to attract investment, scale rapidly and convert research into commercial outcomes.

Data published by Tesi and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra highlights the following:

• Finnish deeptech companies raised approximately €363 million in 2024, an increase of roughly 40 percent from 2023.
• In 2023 Finnish deeptech firms passed €1 billion in total sales for the first time.

Growth spans space technology, quantum computing, secure communications, advanced sensing, critical infrastructure and energy resilience.

Finland’s Strategic Role in Chips and Quantum

Finland has become a key contributor to Europe’s semiconductor and quantum ambitions.

According to the EU Chips Act, Finland participates in all five major European semiconductor pilot lines. It also leads the SUPREME superconducting quantum pilot line.

These programmes strengthen Europe’s long-term capability to design, test and industrialise foundational computing and microelectronics technologies. Finland is not only adopting leading-edge systems. It is actively developing and industrialising them at scale.

How Defence and Dual-Use Innovation Are Shaping the Region

The Tough Tech report also highlights how investment across the region is distributed across core verticals. Converted into euros for clarity:

• Space and satellite technologies have received approximately €647 million.
• Quantum computing, cryptography and sensing have received approximately €557 million.
• Energy-security solutions have received approximately €233 million.
• Health-preparedness technologies have received approximately €153 million.

Finland already has established strengths in many of these areas. This aligns with the country’s long-standing emphasis on national readiness, collaborative research ecosystems and industrial resilience.

What This Means for Hiring and Talent Strategy

At Intelligent Employment we see clear evidence of rising demand for highly specialised talent across deeptech and dual-use sectors. Companies are seeking profiles such as:

• Quantum engineers and cryogenic specialists
• Satellite-system designers
• Secure-communications experts
• Advanced-materials scientists
• Systems engineers for dual-use applications
• Applied-AI specialists working on autonomy and sensing

These roles require environments that support research, rapid experimentation, technological maturity and strong ties between industry, government and academia. Finland and its neighbouring countries provide this combination exceptionally well.

For organisations developing complex or mission-critical technologies, the region is becoming a preferred destination for accessing specialist talent.

Europe’s Deeptech Opportunity

Large-scale research from McKinsey indicates that Europe could unlock up to €920 billion in enterprise value and create as many as one million new jobs by 2030 if deeptech ecosystems reach full scale.

Finland and the eastern frontier nations are central to this potential. They are no longer emerging players. They are shaping the direction of Europe’s technological capacity and strategic resilience.

Europe’s eastern and northern frontier is becoming a centre of industrial innovation. The region has moved from early exploration to full-scale implementation, and Finland is one of its primary engines.

For organisations operating in NewSpace, defence innovation, climate resilience, advanced compute or critical digital infrastructure, Finland should now be considered a leading location for technology development and talent acquisition.

If your organisation is preparing to expand into deeptech or needs support hiring specialists in these fields, the ecosystems to watch are already clear.

If your organisation is expanding within NewSpace or developing next-generation satellite, sensing or mission-critical systems, Intelligent Employment can support every stage of your talent strategy.
Explore our dedicated NewSpace recruitment capabilities here: https://intelligentemployment.com/sectors/newspace.

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