Do you remember about a decade ago when it felt like every venture capitalist on the planet was completely obsessed with “Uber for laundry” or some new SaaS platform designed to shave three seconds off a corporate workflow? It was a strange time. We spent years—maybe even a full decade—obsessively optimizing the digital world while the physical one just sort of sat there, patiently waiting for its turn. Well, looking back from the vantage point of 2026, it’s pretty clear that the script has flipped entirely. The era of “bits over atoms” didn’t exactly die out, but it definitely had to pull up an extra chair at the table for some heavy-duty physics. And honestly? It’s about time.
According to reports from The Next Web, the Paris-based venture firm Quantonation made a massive splash in the industry when it closed its second flagship fund at a staggering €220 million. To put that into perspective, it was more than double the size of their first vehicle. But this wasn’t just a financial win for a single firm; it was a loud, clear signal to the rest of the world. It told us that institutional capital was finally ready to get its hands dirty with hardware, advanced materials, and the kind of “deep physics” that used to stay locked away behind the heavy doors of university labs. We aren’t just talking about building slightly faster computers here; we’re talking about a fundamental, tectonic shift in how we actually build the future from the ground up.
I’ve been watching this space for a while now, and what I find most fascinating is how Quantonation didn’t just follow the usual herd. While everyone else was chasing the latest AI wrapper or another generative model that writes mediocre poetry, they were betting on sensing, communications, and the actual physical infrastructure that makes next-gen tech possible in the first place. It’s a gutsy move, honestly. Investing in hardware is notoriously difficult—it’s expensive, the R&D cycles are punishingly long, and at the end of the day, things actually have to work in the real world, not just on a staging server somewhere in the cloud. There’s no “moving fast and breaking things” when you’re dealing with cryogenics and subatomic particles; if you break it, you’re out millions of dollars and months of progress.
We’ve Hit the Ceiling with Pure Software—And Physics is the Only Way Up
Let’s be real for a second: we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns in the world of pure software. You can only optimize a database, a social media algorithm, or a delivery app so much before you hit the hard limits of the hardware it’s running on. You can’t code your way out of the laws of thermodynamics. That’s exactly why this €220 million fund mattered so much. It focused squarely on the “how” of the future—the sensors that can detect a single, lonely photon or the materials that will eventually replace our current, aging silicon standards. We’ve spent forty years squeezing everything we can out of silicon, and we’re finally reaching the end of that road.
According to a 2023 report from the Boston Consulting Group, quantum computing alone could generate up to $850 billion in annual value by 2040. When you see numbers like that, you start to realize why big names like the European Investment Fund, French public investor Bpifrance, and even tech giants like Toshiba jumped on board with Quantonation. These aren’t people who throw money at “trendy” things for the sake of it. They weren’t just buying into a venture fund; they were securing a seat at the table for the next industrial revolution. It’s about long-term survival in a world where the most powerful tools are no longer just lines of code, but the manipulation of matter itself.
But it’s not just about the money, though the money is obviously huge. It’s about a fundamental shift in mindset. We’re finally moving away from the “move fast and break things” mantra and toward a philosophy of “think deeply and build things that last.” The portfolio Quantonation has built—targeting roughly 25 companies—spans the entire ecosystem. They aren’t just betting on one lucky horse to win the race; they’re essentially building the entire racetrack, the grandstands, and the betting windows. They understand that for quantum to work, you need the whole stack to evolve simultaneously.
“The quantum revolution isn’t just a scientific milestone; it’s an infrastructure play. We are moving from the era of digital optimization to the era of physical discovery.”
— Editorial Perspective on the Deep Tech Shift
Europe is Finally Breaking the Cycle of “Invent Here, Scale There”
For years, the narrative has been pretty depressing: Europe is world-class at research but absolutely terrible at commercialization. We’d invent something ground-breaking in a lab in Berlin, Paris, or Delft, and then, almost like clockwork, a US-based company would swoop in, buy the IP, scale it in California, and sell it back to us at a premium. It was a frustrating, self-defeating cycle that left Europe as a continent of brilliant thinkers but mediocre executors. However, the success and scale of Quantonation II suggests that Europe is finally learning how to keep its own talent and its own tech close to home.
By writing larger checks and backing startups from the early “what if” stages all the way through the grueling process of scaling, this fund helped bridge the infamous “valley of death” that kills so many promising deep tech companies. It’s that middle ground where the research is done but the product isn’t quite ready for the mass market—a place where traditional VCs usually get cold feet. We’re seeing a mix of public and private capital here that reflects a new kind of confidence. When you have Singapore-linked Vertex Holdings and Denmark’s Novo Holdings investing alongside French and Spanish groups, you know it’s not just a local hobby or a government-subsidized project. It’s a global competition, and for once, Europe is playing to win.
And let’s look at the hard data for a moment. According to Statista, global private equity and venture capital investment in quantum technology reached over $2 billion annually by the mid-2020s. While Europe still trails the U.S. and China in terms of total private investment scale, funds like Quantonation are helping to narrow that gap by creating a coherent, localized ecosystem rather than a series of scattered, disconnected bets. It’s about building a “commercial stack” that actually integrates quantum systems into real, existing supply chains. It’s not just about having the best lab; it’s about having the best logistics for that lab’s output.
Moving from Lab Experiments to the Factory Floor
One of the coolest things about this shift—and I really mean that—is the intense focus on “industrialization.” In the early days, quantum investing was almost entirely about proof-of-concept. Can we make two qubits entangle? Great, here’s a check. Can we maintain coherence for a millisecond? Incredible, here’s some more money. Now, the conversation has changed. It’s about products that customers—real, paying customers, not just academic scientists—can actually use. We’re talking about quantum sensing for medical imaging that’s ten times more accurate than the best MRI we have today, or advanced materials discovered through quantum simulation that could make batteries last for weeks instead of days.
It’s a transition from the sterile environment of the lab to the gritty reality of the factory floor. And that’s where the real, generational wealth is made. Quantonation’s strategy of backing the “boring” stuff—the specialized components, the high-precision cooling systems, the specific lasers—is actually the smartest play in the room. You can have the most sophisticated quantum processor in the world, but if you don’t have the specialized infrastructure to keep it at near-absolute zero, it’s just an incredibly expensive, very fragile paperweight. They are investing in the shovels for the quantum gold rush.
I truly think we’re going to look back at this specific period as the moment “Deep Physics” became a household term for investors, right alongside “AI” or “Cloud.” It’s no longer a niche curiosity for people with PhDs. It’s the foundation of the next fifty years of economic growth. And frankly, it’s about time we got back to basics. We’ve spent enough time and brainpower building apps to deliver pizza three minutes faster; it’s genuinely refreshing to see some of our best minds going back to the fundamental laws of the universe to solve real problems.
Is quantum technology actually ready for the real world yet?
It depends on what you mean by “ready.” While we aren’t all carrying quantum-powered smartphones in our pockets just yet, the technology is already making massive waves in the industrial sector. Quantum sensing is currently being used in civil engineering to map underground structures and in medical diagnostics for ultra-precise imaging. Furthermore, quantum-safe cryptography is rapidly becoming the new gold standard for secure communications as we move deeper into 2026 and beyond.
Why did Quantonation focus on “Deep Physics” instead of just using the “Quantum” label?
Because the “Quantum” label can be a bit of a double-edged sword—it’s flashy, but it can also be limiting. Deep Physics is a much broader tent. It includes things like advanced materials science, photonics, and high-end sensing—technologies that often overlap with quantum mechanics but have immediate, broad industrial applications. It’s a more holistic, and frankly more realistic, way to look at the hardware revolution that’s currently unfolding.
Does Europe actually have a real chance against the US and China?
In terms of raw, liquid cash, it’s still an uphill battle; the scale of US private capital is hard to beat. But in terms of raw talent, foundational research, and intellectual property, Europe is an absolute powerhouse. Funds like Quantonation provide the financial plumbing and the business acumen needed to turn that research into global companies. It’s making the continent a serious contender in the “sovereign tech” race, ensuring Europe isn’t just a consumer of the future, but a creator of it.
The Verdict: Why the “Quantum Winter” Never Actually Showed Up
So, where does all of this leave us? As we move through 2026, the companies backed by this €220 million fund are likely hitting their stride, moving from prototypes to production. We’re seeing the first real waves of quantum-integrated infrastructure hitting the market, and the impact is starting to be felt in everything from drug discovery to financial modeling. The “Quantum Winter” that some skeptics predicted a few years ago—claiming the tech was all hype and no substance—never really arrived. Instead, it just turned into a very busy, very productive “Quantum Spring.”
The lesson here is simple, but it’s one we often forget in the fast-paced tech world: don’t bet against the physicists. They might take a lot longer to build their products than a software dev team working in an agile sprint, but when they finally do deliver, they change the world in fundamental ways that an app never could. You can’t A/B test a new material for a fusion reactor or a quantum sensor; you just have to get the physics right. Europe has placed its bet on that precision, and if the current trajectory is any indication, it’s going to pay off in a big way for the entire ecosystem.
We’re finally building a commercial ecosystem that can compete at a global scale. It’s not just about the science anymore; it’s about the business of the future. And that future looks remarkably bright, even if, in true quantum fashion, it is a bit entangled. We are moving past the era of digital tweaks and into the era of physical breakthroughs, and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited to see where it leads.
This article is sourced from various news outlets. Analysis and presentation represent our editorial perspective.
