Chips Venture Forum 2025 Award… and the winner is Vertical Compute

Chips Venture Forum 2025: Europe’s leading platform for semiconductor startups & investors

The Chips Venture Forum 2025, an initiative of aCCCess, organized by Blumorpho in cooperation with the EIC – European Innovation Council and the European Commission, demonstrated Europe’s ambition to strengthen the semiconductor value chain – from R&D to manufacturing and industrial scaling.

As Pierre Chastanet, Head of Unit – Microelectronics and Photonics Industry at the European Commission and DG Connect, emphasized in his opening speech, the Chips Venture Forum 2025 brought together the crème de la crème of Europe’s most innovative semiconductor companies for the final pitching session, which took place on 18.

With more than 165 participants, the Forum demonstrated the growing momentum behind the European Chips Act and Europe’s strategy to consolidate technological sovereignty and competitiveness in advanced microelectronics.

Presenting the leading European semiconductor start-ups

This year’s Forum showcased 18 of the most promising European semiconductor companies, carefully selected from 87 high-quality applications. They represent a broad spectrum of technologies, including advanced materials, chip architectures, photonics, sensing, green manufacturing and AI-driven microelectronics – a testament to the depth and diversity of the European innovation ecosystem.

The selected companies:

• SpiNNcloud, represented by Matthias Lohrmann, provides brain-inspired supercomputing technology for complex, AI-driven systems. The SpiNNaker2 architecture supports dynamic sparsity in mainstream AI applications with superior energy efficiency.
• ExpectedIT, represented by Burkhard Steinmacher-Burow, is a deep-tech pioneer that aims to revolutionize the computing industry with a breakthrough server architecture to optimize workload performance and costs in data centers.
• DIAMFAB, represented by Ivan Llaurado, aims to revolutionize power electronics & quantum sensing using Semiconductor Diamond – based on 30 years of R&E at CNRS and protected by 8 patents.
• Aluvia Photonics, represented by Steve Stoffels, is the first PIC platform provider based on Al₂O₃ and offers ultra-low loss, broad transparency, high performance and on-chip gain comparable to fiber amplifiers. The platform enables applications in quantum, telecom, datacom, LiDAR, AR/VR and sensing.
• Chip NanoImaging AS, represented by Jan Alfheim, commercializes a photonic-chip-waveguide-based wide-field-of-view Super Resolution Microscope (SRM) that enables high throughput and big data, redefining the boundaries of super-resolution microscopy with advanced photonic technology.
• SteerLight, represented by François Simoens, is reshaping the future of 3D perception with its Silicon Photonics-based 1550 nm FMCW LiDAR.
• AGATE Sensors, represented by Mikael Westerlund, is a deep-tech company developing a novel pixel-based, ultra-miniaturized, software-defined broadband spectral CMOS sensor platform. It delivers nanometer-accurate spectral reconstruction in solid-state format for measurement and imaging applications.
• VerticalCompute, represented by Sylvain Dubois, is breaking through the memory wall of AI chips with a Vertical Integrated Memory and Compute technology delivered as chiplets.
• TiHive, represented by Hani Sherry, provides Terahertz-on-Silicon sensing and vision solutions coupled with AI and Big Data for industrial and space applications.
• Greenbit Technology, represented by Lauri Paal, develops proprietary heat recovery solutions that reclaim excess heat from computing – with in-house chip, electronics and mechanical R&E and manufacturing capacity.
• Lithium Lasers, represented by Alessandro Gregorio, helps customers optimize their patented GHz burst femtosecond laser for industrial manufacturing. With unparalleled control over burst shape and energy, the system increases quality and throughput in semiconductors, packaging and difficult-to-machine materials such as SiC and various industrial glasses.
• NordAmps, represented by Jan Andersson, is developing the next generation of nanowire transistor technology with unmatched performance at high frequencies and high scalability: standing III-V nanowire transistors on silicon.
• Spin-Ion Technologies, represented by Dafiné Ravelosona, develops on-chip content learning for edge AI chips.
• Comptek Solutions, represented by Vicente Calvo Alonso, offers passivation technology for III-V semiconductor devices. Their innovative surface treatment process transforms the surface of III-V materials into a high-quality native crystalline oxide layer, reduces defects and drastically improves the performance and production yield of optoelectronics and power transistors.
• Wooptix, represented by José Manuel Ramos, builds semiconductor metrology equipment for 3DNAND, LOGIC, D-RAM, etc., as well as free-form wafer warpages. Free-form wafer warpage systems for real-time global and local measurements for the fab environment.
• NSS Water, represented by Bjorn Holmström, develops and commercializes the patented Water Enhancement Technology (WET) for the production of Nanopure® Water (NPW), the world’s purest water. Their modular point-of-use systems eliminate nano-contamination above 5 nm, improve semiconductor yields and reduce water and chemical consumption by up to 90%.
• VoxelSensors, represented by Johannes Peeters, provides a perception-as-a-service platform for the Physical AI economy. They deliver an end-to-end solution that combines ultra-low-power sensing with a high-performance data platform to train and deploy intelligent robotics and AR/XR wearables in the real world.
• FaradaIC Sensors, represented by Ryan Guterman, has developed Faraday-Ox®, the world’s first oxygen gas sensor on a chip. Using MECS-Technology® (Micro-Electro-Chemical-Systems), it offers ultra-low-power, high-precision O₂ sensing in a miniaturized solid-state format.

European deep-tech investors and industry leaders evaluate semiconductor start-ups

The forum benefited from a high caliber panel of investors and business leaders representing major semiconductor and technology funds, ensuring a strong focus on market needs, industrial strategies and innovation potential:

Anne Lebreton-Wolf – ALW Finance & Innovation
Susanne Schorsch – Amadeus Capital Partners
Victor Acinas – Applied Materials
Helmut Gassel – Ardian (Silian Partner)
Christophe Frey – Arm
Paul Murray – Atlantic Bridge
Antoine Amade – Entegris
Alejandro Horstmann – ETF Partners
Jorg Nowack – Hitachi
Michael Engelmann – imec.xpand
José Miguel Pascual Ruiz – Indra
Juan Carlos Martín Fernández – Indra
Pierre Garnier – Jolt Capital
Bedwyr Humphreys – Lam Capital
Sarah Luppino – M Ventures
Christian Reitberger – Matterwave
Alan Bulian – Mountain X
Timo Tenhovuori – Nokia
Fabian Faul – NXP Semiconductors
Hind Beaujon – Pfeiffer Vacuum
Pieter Klinkert – Photon Ventures
Raphaël Bodin – Quantonation
Hans Brouwer – Riverside Investments
Giovanni Bologna – Santander
Katharina Westrich – Siemens
Olav Carlsen – SPRIND
David Hurley – TEL Venture Capital
Christian Claussen – Ventech

After more than 180 digital meetings since September, 126 meetings between investors and selected start-ups took place on the day of the event.ups took place. This positions the Forum as the leading European platform for semiconductor investment, business development and deep tech scale-up opportunities.

Chips Venture Forum 2025 Awards: Honoring Europe’s semiconductor innovation leaders

The Forum concluded with the Chips Venture Forum 2025 Award Ceremony, which recognizes companies shaping Europe’s semiconductor future.

This year’s winner is Vertical Compute, represented by Sylvain Dubois. The company develops breakthrough next-generation in-memory computing architectures that combine logic and MRAM to overcome the data compute bottleneck and enable ultra-efficient AI and edge processing. Vertical Compute has been celebrated for its outstanding innovation and potential to shape Europe’s semiconductor landscape.

In addition, the jury presented special awards to start-ups that excel in strategically important areas:

• Coup de cœur of the jury for Sustainable Semiconductors (Materials, Processes & Metrology for More Sustainable Manufacturing) went to FaradaIC Sensors, represented by Ryan Guterman, for their deep-tech fabless semiconductor & chemical company that miniaturizes electrochemical (Faradaic) gas sensors onto microchips. This enables ultra-compact, energy-efficient O₂, CO and H₂ detection for high-volume IoT, medical and industrial applications.
• Coup de cœur of the jury for Potential in Energy-Efficient Devices went to SpiNNcloud, represented by Matthias Lohrmann, for their brain-inspired AI inference infrastructure with extremely high energy efficiency.

These awards highlight breakthrough technologies that drive energy efficiency, sustainable semiconductor materials and next-generation computing architectures – key elements of the European strategy under the Chips Act.

Building a competitive and sustainable European semiconductor ecosystem

The Chips Venture Forum 2025 confirms the crucial role of aCCCess, Competence Centers and coordinated European initiatives in accelerating semiconductor innovation, building industrial capacity and fostering a robust and competitive ecosystem.

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About aCCCess:
The aCCCess project brings together 7 project partners and 10 associated partners, including Chips Competence Centers, Pilot Lines and the Design Platform, to build the European Network of Chips Competence Centers (ENCCC). By supporting the establishment of CCCs, harmonizing processes and fostering cross-border collaboration, it strengthens the European semiconductor value chain and innovation power.

Contact aCCCess coordinator: hamelin@blumorpho.com 

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About Blumorpho:
Blumorpho is a boutique innovation strategy and operating partner. We leverage our ecosystem platform to scale impactful solutions.

Positioned at the intersection of market opportunity, innovation and funding, Blumorpho provides strategic advice and develops innovation programs to create value, scale solutions and structure investment-ready opportunities with strategic and financial stakeholders.

Contact Press Blumorpho: uguen@blumorpho.com & radia@blumorpho.com