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Brought to you by:

EDF: partnering with New Wave on this mini-series to explore how cleaner energy, industrial innovation, and ambitious startups can rebuild Europe’s productive edge. Discover EDF’s work with industrial and climate innovators here.

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👉 Europe cannot rebuild the past

Reindustrialisation does not mean bringing back the factories Europe lost in the 1980s and 1990s. With high energy prices, material dependencies, labour shortages, and fragile supply chains, Europe needs a fundamentally different model: cleaner, more automated, less resource-intensive, and more flexible.

👉 Startups don’t need more pilots. They need venture customers

A startup cannot rebuild European industry alone. Neither can a corporate or a VC. The real unlock could be a three-way alliance: startups create the technology, investors finance the risk, and venture customers provide credibility, industrial access, and a path to scale.

But are corporates prepared to make bold commitments, or will startups remain trapped in endless €10K pilot projects?

👉 Europe has a speed problem

European founders are asked for three years of factory data before building their first factory. American investors ask whether the same technology could work in space.

Europe has grants, engineering talent, and political ambition. What it lacks is faster capital, simpler programmes, unified rules, and a greater willingness to back step changes rather than incremental improvements.

The cost of moving too slowly? Europe’s most ambitious companies, and their factories, may be financed and built elsewhere.

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References

EDF Pulse Pilot and industrial demonstration programmes

SPRIND innovation programmes

European Innovation Council funding programmes

Europe’s net-zero manufacturing capacity objectives

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Wave Makers

Dr. Anne Umbach — HTGFMichel Hunsicker — EDF Pulse VenturesTom Vroemen — TETMET

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Chapters

(00:00) Can startups help Europe reindustrialise?(01:05) What reindustrialisation actually means(03:20) The factory of the future(09:15) Does Europe need to own its industrial infrastructure?(12:30) The role startups should play(15:40) What makes an industrial startup VC-backable?(21:35) Europe’s capital gap—and the American comparison(26:30) Venture customers as the missing unlock(31:35) How EDF helps startups cross the industrialisation gap(34:25) Grants, bureaucracy, and Europe’s fragmented programmes(37:10) Bold bets versus techno-economic reality(41:20) Will customers pay a European premium?(43:35) Is Europe on track for 2030?(48:20) One wish to accelerate European industry

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