From deep-tech to climate-tech, targeted scale-up capital is accelerating the transition toward low-carbon industrial systems
从硬核科技到气候科技，定向规模化增资正加速推动工业体系向低碳化转型。
Background
The transition toward carbon neutrality is no longer driven solely by policy commitments or industrial incumbents. Increasingly, it is shaped by a new generation of startups developing highly specialized technologies that address critical bottlenecks in decarbonisation, energy efficiency, and environmental protection.
In this context, the European Innovation Council scheme represents a significant evolution in Europe’s innovation strategy. By allocating large-scale funding to a select group of high-potential companies, the initiative aims to accelerate the deployment of breakthrough technologies with direct relevance to climate transition and industrial sustainability.
背景
碳中和转型不再仅依靠政策承诺或传统老牌企业推动。如今，转型进程愈发由新一代初创企业主导；这类企业研发高度专业化技术，着力破解脱碳、能效提升、生态环保领域的关键瓶颈。
在此背景下，欧洲创新理事会计划标志着欧洲创新战略的重大升级。该计划为一批精选的高潜力企业配置大规模资金，旨在加快突破性技术落地应用，助力气候转型与工业可持续发展。
EIC STEP Scale Up: Enabling Climate-Relevant Industrial Scaling
The 2026 STEP Scale Up call resulted in:
• 44 proposals submitted
• 8 companies selected
• Total investment capacity of €146.5 million
Beyond the numbers, the strategic significance lies in where and how this capital is deployed. The programme specifically targets technologies that can contribute to:
• Decarbonisation of industrial systems
• Energy system transformation
• Resource efficiency and environmental protection
• Strategic technological autonomy in climate-relevant sectors
Unlike traditional innovation funding, this mechanism focuses on late-stage scaling, where climate technologies often face the highest barriers due to capital intensity, infrastructure requirements, and market complexity.
EIC STEP 扩容计划：助力气候相关产业规模化发展
2026 年度 STEP 扩容征集成果如下：
• 共收到 44 份项目提案
• 入选企业 8 家
• 总投资规模达 1.465 亿欧元
除却数据层面，这笔资金的投放领域与落地方式更具战略意义。本计划重点扶持可助力以下领域的技术发展：
• 工业体系脱碳
• 能源体系转型
• 资源高效利用与生态环境保护
• 气候相关领域的战略技术自主
与传统创新资助不同，该机制聚焦后期规模化扩张阶段。气候类技术往往因资金投入大、配套基建要求高、市场格局复杂，在规模化落地时面临最大发展壁垒。
Selected Startups: Enabling the Climate Transition Through Advanced Technologies
While the selected companies operate across different deep-tech domains, several of them contribute—directly or indirectly—to the enabling infrastructure required for carbon neutrality.
AI and Digitalisation for Energy and Resource Efficiency – Aignostics (Germany)
Aignostics, while positioned in the healthcare domain, exemplifies a broader trend highly relevant to the energy transition: the use of artificial intelligence to optimise complex systems.
The same AI-driven analytical capabilities applied in biomedical diagnostics are increasingly transferable to:
• Energy system optimisation
• Industrial process efficiency
• Resource allocation and predictive maintenance
This reflects a key structural dynamic: digital technologies are becoming foundational enablers of decarbonisation, even when not directly classified as climate-tech.
Quantum Technologies as Long-Term Enablers of Energy Transition – Alice & Bob (France) & QuantWare (Netherlands)
Quantum computing remains at an early stage, but its potential impact on carbon neutrality is substantial.
Companies such as Alice & Bob and QuantWare are developing scalable quantum systems that, once mature, could transform:
• Materials discovery for low-carbon technologies (e.g. advanced batteries, hydrogen catalysts)
• Optimisation of energy grids and storage systems
• Simulation of complex climate models
• Industrial process design with reduced emissions
Although indirect, these technologies address one of the most critical constraints in the transition: the speed at which new materials and systems can be developed and deployed.
入选初创企业：以前沿技术助力气候转型
本次入选企业虽深耕不同硬核科技领域，但其多数都直接或间接为碳中和所需配套支撑体系提供赋能。
人工智能与数字化 —— 提升能源及资源利用效率——Aignostics（德国）
Aignostics 主营医疗健康领域，却代表了与能源转型高度相关的一大趋势：利用人工智能优化复杂系统。
其应用于生物医疗诊断的 AI 分析能力，正逐步迁移至以下场景：
• 能源系统优化
• 工业生产能效提升
• 资源配置与设备预测性维护
这反映出一个核心行业趋势：数字技术正成为脱碳的底层支撑，即便本身不直接归为气候科技范畴。
量子技术 —— 能源转型的长期赋能力量——Alice & Bob（法国）& QuantWare（荷兰）
量子计算目前仍处于发展初期，但其对碳中和的潜在影响十分深远。
Alice & Bob、QuantWare 等企业正在研发可规模化量子系统，技术成熟后将重塑以下领域：
• 低碳技术新材料研发（如高端电池、氢能催化剂）
• 能源电网与储能系统优化
• 复杂气候模型仿真模拟
• 低排放工业工艺流程设计
这类赋能虽属间接作用，却破解了气候转型中最关键的制约因素：新材料、新系统的研发与落地应用速度。
Emerging Climate-Tech Potential Across the Portfolio
Even where startups are not explicitly labelled as climate-tech, the broader portfolio reflects key enabling directions:
• Advanced computing for energy system modelling
• High-performance hardware for efficient data processing
• Biotechnologies with potential applications in sustainable materials and environmental remediation
This highlights an important reality: the boundary between deep-tech and climate-tech is increasingly blurred, with enabling technologies playing a decisive role in long-term decarbonisation.
投资组合中新兴气候科技的发展潜力
即便部分初创企业并未被明确归类为气候科技企业，整体投资布局仍呈现出几大关键赋能方向：
• 面向能源系统建模的先进计算技术
• 支撑高效数据处理的高性能硬件
• 可应用于可持续材料与环境修复领域的生物技术
这凸显了一个重要现实：硬核科技与气候科技的边界正日渐模糊，各类赋能技术在长期脱碳进程中发挥着决定性作用。
Startups as Drivers of Carbon Neutrality and Environmental Transformation
Startups occupy a unique position in the climate transition ecosystem. Their importance is not only linked to innovation, but to their ability to challenge existing technological and industrial constraints.
In the context of carbon neutrality, startups contribute in several critical ways:
• Technology disruption: introducing alternative solutions to carbon-intensive processes
• Speed of innovation: accelerating development cycles compared to traditional industry
• Niche problem solving: addressing specific bottlenecks (e.g. carbon capture efficiency, energy storage limitations)
• System integration: combining digital, material, and energy innovations into scalable solutions
However, climate technologies often require significant capital to reach industrial scale. Without adequate funding, many high-impact solutions remain confined to pilot stages.
This is where targeted investment mechanisms such as STEP Scale Up become essential—not just for innovation, but for real-world decarbonisation impact.
初创企业：碳中和与环境转型的核心驱动力
初创企业在气候转型生态中占据独特地位。其价值不仅体现在创新能力上，更在于能够突破现有技术与行业固有桎梏。
在碳中和进程中，初创企业从多个关键维度发挥作用：
• 技术颠覆：为高碳排放产业流程提供替代解决方案
• 创新提速：相较传统行业，大幅缩短技术研发迭代周期
• 细分破局：攻克各类特定瓶颈（如碳捕集效率、储能技术短板等）
• 系统整合：融合数字、材料、能源领域创新，打造可规模化落地的整体方案
然而，气候科技往往需要巨额资金支撑才能实现产业化规模发展。若缺乏充足资金支持，许多具备高价值的技术方案只能停留在试点阶段。
正因如此，STEP Scale Up 这类专项投资机制显得至关重要 —— 其价值不只在于赋能创新，更在于推动脱碳成果真正落地、产生实际行业效益。
Strategic Role of Investment in Accelerating Climate Innovation
The concentration of funding in a limited number of companies reflects a clear strategic priority: enabling technologies with system-level impact.
For climate-related innovation, this has specific implications:
• Bridging the “valley of death” for capital-intensive climate technologies
• Accelerating deployment timelines for solutions critical to emission reduction
• Reducing reliance on external technology ecosystems in strategic sectors
• Mobilising private capital into climate innovation through public co-investment
In this framework, investment is not neutral—it actively shapes the trajectory of the energy transition.
投资在加速气候创新中的战略作用
资金集中投向少数优质企业，体现了清晰的战略导向：重点扶持具备系统级影响力的赋能技术。
对于气候领域创新而言，此举具有多重现实意义：
• 帮助资本密集型气候科技跨越死亡之谷
• 加快减排关键技术方案的落地应用进程
• 降低战略领域对外部技术生态的依赖度
• 通过公共联合投资，撬动社会资本投入气候创新
在此逻辑框架下，投资并非中立行为，而是主动塑造能源转型的发展路径。
China Perspective: Rapid Scaling of Climate-Focused Startups
In parallel, Chinese startups are playing an increasingly strategic role in advancing carbon neutrality, combining technological innovation with a distinctive capacity for rapid industrial scaling and market deployment. This capability is strongly supported by policy alignment with national climate targets, integrated supply chains, and large domestic markets that enable fast validation and adoption of new solutions.
Chinese climate-focused startups are particularly active in sectors critical to the energy transition, including:
• Energy storage and battery technologies, supporting large-scale renewable integration
• Electric mobility ecosystems, including charging infrastructure and smart mobility solutions
• Green construction and low-carbon materials, addressing emissions in the built environment
• Digital energy systems, leveraging AI and data to optimise energy consumption and grid efficiency
• Carbon management and ESG platforms, enabling monitoring, reporting, and compliance
A key differentiator lies in their ability to move quickly from innovation to industrial-scale implementation, reducing costs and accelerating real-world impact. Startups are often embedded within broader industrial and policy ecosystems, allowing for faster integration and deployment compared to more fragmented innovation environments.
In comparison with Europe’s strong deep-tech and research-driven approach, Chinese startups demonstrate greater strength in execution, scaling, and system integration. This creates a complementary dynamic in the global landscape, where both technological breakthroughs and deployment capacity are essential to achieving carbon neutrality.
中国视角：气候科创初创企业加速规模化发展
与此同时，中国初创企业在推进碳中和进程中正扮演愈发重要的战略角色，兼具技术创新能力，以及快速产业化规模化、市场化落地的独特优势。
国家气候目标的政策配套、完备的产业链供应链，加上庞大的国内市场可为新技术方案提供快速验证与普及应用的土壤，为这一能力提供了有力支撑。
聚焦气候领域的中国初创企业，在能源转型关键赛道表现尤为活跃，涵盖：
• 储能与电池技术，支撑大规模可再生能源并网消纳
• 电动出行生态，含充电基建及智慧出行解决方案
• 绿色建筑与低碳建材，解决建筑领域碳排放问题
• 数字能源系统，依托人工智能与数据优化用能及电网运行效率
• 碳管理与 ESG 服务平台，实现碳监测、披露与合规管理
核心差异优势在于：能快速从技术创新跨越到产业化落地，实现成本下降并加速产生实际社会效益。
国内初创企业深度融入产业与政策生态体系，相比创新环境较为分散的地区，具备更快的资源整合与技术落地能力。
欧洲侧重硬核科技与科研驱动，而中国初创企业更擅长落地执行、规模扩张与系统集成。
全球碳中和格局下，双方形成互补态势 —— 技术突破与规模化落地能力，都是实现碳中和目标不可或缺的关键要素。
Outlook
The EIC STEP Scale Up initiative illustrates a critical shift in how innovation is positioned within the carbon neutrality agenda. Startups are not only sources of new technologies—they are strategic actors in the transition toward sustainable industrial systems.
At the same time, the effectiveness of this model will depend on the ability to connect:
• Innovation with industrial deployment
• Public funding with private investment
• Technological development with climate impact
In a global landscape where both Europe and China are advancing along different but interconnected paths, the role of startups—supported by targeted, large-scale investment—will be decisive in determining the speed and effectiveness of the transition toward a low-carbon future.
展望
欧盟 EIC STEP 规模化扶持计划，体现了碳中和议程中创新定位的重大转变。初创企业不再只是新技术的来源，更是迈向可持续工业体系进程中的战略参与主体。
与此同时，这一模式的成效，取决于能否实现多方联动衔接：
• 创新研发与产业落地应用相结合
• 公共资金与社会资本投资相联动
• 技术研发与气候实际效益相匹配
在全球格局下，欧洲与中国正沿着路径各异却相互关联的方向推进低碳转型。依托专项大额投资扶持的初创企业，将决定性影响全球迈向低碳未来的转型速度与实施成效。
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