Meet the 10 Startups Selected for Ignite Next Batch #2
Selected from 449 applications across Europe, these ten companies build the hardware and silicon that the next generation of AI, sensing and computing runs on.
Key Highlights
- 449 applications: received from early-stage deep tech startups across Europe
- 12-week program: from November 9, 2026 to February 26, 2027 with strategic and technology partners
- Kickoff Week (November 9 to 12): program launch in Munich with mentors and partners
Ignite Next welcomes the ten startups joining Batch #2.
Selected from 449 applications across Europe, these companies work on the physical layer of the next computing era: photonic and neuromorphic processors, image and spectral sensors, lasers for AI data centers, quantum hardware, metrology for advanced packaging, plasma cooling and energy storage for infrastructure that cannot go down. Each was chosen for the strength of its technology, the depth of its team and its potential to become a category-defining European company.
The program starts on November 9 with an in-person Kickoff Week in Munich, where founders meet their mentors and partners and set the priorities for the twelve weeks ahead.
Over the program, founders work with senior industry mentors and the Ignite Next partners Infineon, Intel, Synopsys, Arrow, Light Conversion and SUSS MicroTec to sharpen product-market fit, build commercial traction and prepare follow-on investment.
These ten teams are building the foundations for Europe's next generation of deep tech leaders.
AGATE Sensors
Espoo, Finland · Spectral Imaging / Sensors · agatesensors.com
AGATE Sensors builds filter-free, software-defined spectral image sensors on standard CMOS. Each pixel works as a spectrometer, so one ultra-miniaturized chipset captures spectral and imaging data that today requires bulky optics and several sensors. The Espoo-based team, with a high share of PhDs, is sampling its chips with first customers and starts in defense applications such as rifle sights and drone detection before expanding into industrial and consumer markets.
AIM Solutions
Eindhoven, Netherlands · Semiconductor Metrology / Inspection · aim-solutions.nl
AIM Solutions builds an optics-free imaging platform for semiconductor inspection and metrology. Algorithms replace complex lens systems and reconstruct high-resolution images with 3D surface profiles; continuous scanning brings this to inline throughput. The first application is pre-bond metrology for hybrid bonding. Founded in 2024 by Yifeng Shao (CEO), based at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
AlphaLum
Lausanne, Switzerland · Photonics / Wearable AI · alphalum.com
AlphaLum, a spin-off from ams OSRAM, builds the human-AI interface for wearable AI. Its polymer-based holographic combiner HoloEdge is a near-eye display architecture with up to 10x efficiency gains, and its laser-based sensing platform Mosha tracks eye and micro-motion for silent intent sensing. Together they make lighter, longer-lasting AI smart glasses possible. The company already operates an OEM-funded hologram pilot line.
Aylight
Zurich, Switzerland · Photonics / AI Data Center Interconnects · aylight.io
Aylight, an ETH Zurich spin-off, makes indium phosphide frequency-modulated comb lasers: a single multi-wavelength light source for the optical interconnects of AI data centers. As AI clusters scale, moving data between chips and racks needs many wavelengths per fiber. Aylight's WDM laser replaces arrays of individual lasers with one compact, efficient source, reducing cost and power in the links that connect accelerators.
eyeo
Antwerp, Belgium · Image Sensors / Silicon Photonics · eyeo-imaging.com
eyeo, an imec spin-off, is creating the future of imaging by removing the color filters that leave today's cameras about 70 percent blind. Its CMOS image sensors replace the filter with a silicon-photonics waveguide color splitter, capturing roughly three times more light and enabling smaller pixels. The result is better low-light performance and higher resolution for smartphones, security cameras and automotive imaging, manufactured on standard foundry processes.
LightQ
Hamburg, Germany · Photonic Computing · lightq.de
LightQ builds AI compute with photonic information technologies. Founded in Hamburg by a team from DESY, the company designs AI accelerators on standard silicon photonics using temporal-spectral computing, starting with a co-processor for the matrix-heavy prefill phase of large language model inference. Computing with light targets a step change in speed and energy use compared with electronic accelerators, with first tape-outs planned for 2027.
Neuronova
Milan, Italy · Neuromorphic Computing / Semiconductors · neuronovatech.com
Neuronova develops silicon for always-on intelligence: a reprogrammable analog neuromorphic processor that runs inference on sensor signals at sub-microwatt power, built on European silicon. Paired with its software stack, the Milan-based team sells discrete chips to device makers for smart glasses, earbuds and other battery-constrained products, with the goal of integrating the processor directly into the sensor.
Sonder Labs
Stockholm, Sweden · Energy Storage / Data Center Power · sonderlabs.com
Sonder Labs develops a hybrid capacitor platform for infrastructure the world cannot afford to turn off. Founded in Stockholm by former Northvolt engineers, the company pairs a Prussian blue analog with carbon in standard 2170 cells and packages them into capacitive backup units for AI data center racks and grid power quality. The chemistry fills the gap between batteries and supercapacitors and can be produced on existing automotive cell lines.
YPLASMA
Madrid, Spain · Thermal Management / Electronics · yplasma.tech
YPLASMA brings solid-state plasma cooling to edge AI and high-performance electronics. Its plasma actuators, based on AC dielectric barrier discharge, create active airflow with no moving parts and add real cooling capacity to devices that today rely on passive heat sinks. With labs in Madrid and Newark, the team works with electronics and telecom manufacturers to move the technology from prototypes into production hardware.
ZuriQ
Zurich, Switzerland · Quantum Computing · zuriq.com
ZuriQ, an ETH Zurich spin-off, builds trapped-ion quantum computers on a 2D native hardware architecture. Arranging ions in two dimensions instead of a single chain removes a key scaling limit of today's trapped-ion systems, and the trap chips are manufactured with Infineon. The company closed its seed round in 2026 and is scaling its team toward the first systems.
Applications for Batch #3 are now open. Visit ignitenext.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
About Ignite Next
Ignite Next is Europe's scale-up program for deep tech innovation, founded by the former Intel Ignite leadership team and now independently operated. The program accelerates early-stage, high-impact startups developing breakthrough technologies in semiconductors, physical AI, advanced computing, and other frontier domains. Non-dilutive and founder-first, Ignite Next works with leading technology companies—including Infineon, Intel, Synopsys, Arrow, Light Conversion and SUSS MicroTec—to connect startups with world-class technical and business expertise, turning breakthrough innovation into breakout success. The program is headquartered in Dresden, Germany, at the heart of Silicon Saxony.