Jan. 15, 2026 –
By Anne-Françoise Pelé, EE Times
Europe boasts a thriving research and startup ecosystem, but the continent still struggles with scale—transforming complex, IP-heavy technologies into companies that can compete on a global stage. Ignite Next, a newly launched pan-European deep-tech scaleup program, is positioning itself to address this challenge, now with the support of industry players Intel, Infineon, and Synopsys.
Launched in December by the former leadership team of Intel Ignite, Ignite Next was spun out as an independent entity to help European deep-tech startups reach commercial scale faster. The team refers to this critical phase as “Pre to B,” the stretch between pre-seed and Series B financing, where many hardware-focused companies often stall before scaling.