Europe’s Reindustrialisation Moment Is Here: Building Resilience Through Technology

Europe stands at a crossroads.

Years of geopolitical shocks, pandemic disruption, and energy insecurity have exposed the fragility of its industrial base. But this isn’t the end of an era, it’s the beginning of a new one.

At Speedinvest, we believe Europe’s path to resilience runs through strategic reindustrialisation. That means scaling breakthrough technologies in energy, automation, and advanced manufacturing, and building the capital and policy infrastructure to support them.

This fragility isn’t merely circumstantial. It stems from deeper, long-standing structural challenges that now threaten Europe’s long-term industrial competitiveness. While momentum is building, we see three core areas that must be addressed:

First, high energy costs and long infrastructure lead times are stalling industrial progress. Europe's recent energy crisis revealed just how exposed the continent is to external shocks, and the slow pace of grid and infrastructure upgrades compounds the problem. Without faster permitting, grid upgrades, and localised energy strategies, energy insecurity will remain a bottleneck to scaling production.

Second, Europe faces dual labour challenges: demographic decline and persistently high costs. Germany alone has an annual shortfall of 4,000 engineers, while rising wages make productivity gains essential. Solving this isn’t just about hiring more. It’s about training smarter and working differently. AI-powered training platforms, human-machine collaboration, scalable automation, and unlocking more value per employee, must be core to Europe’s industrial resilience.

And finally, Europe’s fragmented scale-up funding environment remains its most critical structural weakness. World-class research and early innovation abound, but few companies can scale from lab to line within Europe. Without stronger late-stage capital markets, industrial buyers willing to co-develop, and long-term institutional investors, Europe risks exporting its breakthroughs and importing its industrial future. But funding is only one side of the fragmentation problem. A more unified EU market with harmonised contracting and procurement would enable Europe to act as a single commercial buyer, accelerating scale for new technologies across borders.

These challenges aren’t new, but they’re now converging with a moment of profound technological maturity. That opens new doors for industrial innovation, and positions energy as a vital cornerstone in the resilience strategies of Europe’s most forward-looking companies.

As Julian Grah, Head of Business Resilience at WEPA, puts it, energy isn’t just a line item: 

“More independence from energy suppliers and predictable energy costs are a non-negotiable part of our resilience strategy. In today’s volatile world, they're not just operational concerns. They are core to our competitiveness.”

Europe’s resilience can no longer be assumed. It must be engineered. Reindustrialisation isn’t nostalgia, it’s a strategic lever for climate action and technological sovereignty.

Energy Security as the Backbone of Industrial Sovereignty

Energy is the foundation of sovereignty and resilience. The recent energy crisis, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, exposed just how vulnerable Europe’s industries are to external shocks. Spain experienced a major grid blackout earlier this year. Germany scrambled to replace Russian gas. Fertiliser and aluminium plants shut down. These weren’t isolated incidents. They were structural warning signs. Industrial energy prices in Europe are now over twice as high as in the US and 90% more expensive than in China, deeply eroding cost competitiveness. At the same time, the climate crisis is accelerating the urgency of decarbonisation. Resilient industries must also be clean industries.

“For many of our customers, high and unpredictable energy costs can make entire regions economically unviable for industrial operations,” said Remco Eikhout, CEO and founder of Tibo Energy. “Energy flexibility is now central to site selection.”

Today, leading firms are rethinking energy, not as a fixed overhead, but as a controllable, strategic asset. Smart Energy Management Systems like Tibo Energy help large industrial energy consumers forecast demand, optimise usage, and monetise flexibility, turning volatility into a competitive advantage.

But firm-level tools aren’t enough. For Europe to build systemic resilience, we need open, interoperable energy platforms, grid-aware production systems, and dynamic local energy markets. This means rethinking industrial energy policy as infrastructure, not just climate policy. It also means investing in a next-gen grid that supports bidirectional energy flows, flexible baseloads, and real-time responsiveness.

Energy sovereignty isn't just about generation. It's also about control. Europe’s ability to manufacture its future will depend on whether or not its energy systems are local, intelligent, and resilient.

From ‘Just in Time’ to ‘Just in Case’: Rethinking the Supply Chain

But resilience extends beyond energy. Nowhere is this more evident than in supply chains, where firms are rethinking decades of lean efficiency. European firms are shifting from lean optimisation to building robustness against disruption. Across sectors, firms are abandoning just-in-time efficiency for just-in-case resilience. According to Capgemini, over two-thirds of European organisations posited an active or in-progress supply chain diversification strategy, up from below 60% in 2024. Over time, this could revive just-in-time practices powered by European suppliers rather than predominantly Asian ones. It's a shift already underway, with Chinese manufacturers like BYD and CATL localising production in Eastern Europe to stay competitive. In this light, supply chain strategy becomes a lever for restoring strategic autonomy.

Marco Felsberger, Senior Advisor - Supply Chain Resilience at Prewave, adds that:

"Over the last three to five years, our customers have invested heavily in end-to-end visibility, using AI-powered planning and optimisation tools to refine network design, safety-stock policies, and logistics routes," 

This shift includes “local for local” approaches, sourcing and producing closer to demand, and multi-sourcing strategies for critical components. By mapping risk in real time, pre-onboarding alternate suppliers, and quantifying “time-to-recover,” firms are turning supply chains into living systems that survive shocks rather than shatter under them. 

Meeting this new demand amid talent shortages requires a rethink of how we build. Automation is foundational to meet rising demand amid labour shortages and cost pressures.

Automation and Robotics at the Core 

"We must move away from manual-intensive processes and invest in automation at scale. China is ahead. We need to catch up by aggressively commercializing leading European research efforts in robotics and AI," says Marc Bouchet, Senior Investment Associate with TDK Venture.

The idea that China’s dominance is built on cheap labour is outdated.  Robots, not armies of workers, run battery manufacturing gigafactories today. Their edge? Automation, scale, and integration, not low wages.

Intelligent systems can now navigate the messy, unpredictable environments once considered off-limits to automation. Industries once too chaotic or legacy-bound for automation are becoming viable candidates. In wind energy, for instance, companies like Aerones have raised over €100M for turbine-servicing robots that enhance safety and reduce costs. Similarly, Daedalus is enabling precision machining through autonomous factories that adapt to complex, low-volume orders, once considered unautomatable.

But deployment still faces friction. As Björn Felicetti, Innovation Manager at GOLDBECK, noted:

“Robots perform tasks flawlessly, but deployment hinges on bespoke logistics like cranes and fixtures.”

The future lies in end-to-end solutions that combine robust hardware, modular software, and service layers to make robotics plug-and-play.

"The inflection point for scaled autonomy comes when anyone, not just PhDs, can hook up sensors and specify robotic behaviors using off-the-shelf tools," said Stuart Maggs, Director of Commercial Product at Field AI.

The convergence of AI with physical systems is unlocking capabilities far beyond traditional automation: enabling adaptive robots that learn from experience, smart materials that respond to changing conditions, bio-hybrid systems that integrate living tissue, autonomous machines that navigate unstructured environments, and self-optimizing systems that adjust in real time. These physical AI systems combine advanced sensors, neural networks, and robotics to engage with the real world while ensuring security and accountability. Startups like Genesis AI, Opus, Emmi.ai, and Spaitial.ai are pioneering tools that bridge virtual and physical environments with accuracy and realism far beyond what current systems can achieve. This shift, driven by advanced sensors, actuators, edge computing, and natural language interfaces, positions physical AI to transform industries from manufacturing to agriculture, boosting productivity while minimizing manual oversight.

Yet automation alone doesn’t guarantee resilience. Without stable, affordable energy, even the most advanced factories falter.

Fixing the Capital Stack: The Scale-Up Gap

Europe’s biggest challenge isn’t invention. It’s scaling industrial innovation. We need to evolve beyond financing models built for apps and networks to ones that can power foundries, assembly lines, and the physical backbone of a modern industrial base.

As Tyler Christie, Founder, Figtree Advisors, put it:

“To change this, Europe needs capital markets like Sweden’s, where public-private growth capital accelerates startups and active public markets enable liquidity and exits. Europe needs corporate buyers like their U.S. counterparts who are willing to co-develop and de-risk deployments. It also needs long-term European LPs, like Canada’s pension funds, who embrace technology and infrastructure investing with their commensurate risk/return profiles as a core part of their portfolio strategy.”

If we want to keep the innovation flywheel turning inside Europe, we must fix not just policy but liquidity. Encouragingly, growth capital is beginning to stay. Companies like Exotec (€280M Series D in 2022),  Forto (€210M Series D in 2022), and Proxima Fusion (€130M Series A in 2025) demonstrate strong European investor support and commitment to scaling the various facets of industrial tech within Europe.

The Enablers: Innovation Meets Policy

An economy built on yesterday’s industrial strengths won’t compete in tomorrow’s world. Europe needs more than ingenuity. It needs alignment between policy, capital, and capability.

The foundations are forming. Targeted initiatives like the Net-Zero Industry Act, REPowerEU Plan, and the European Sovereignty Fund are beginning to address energy resilience, supply chain security, and clean-tech capacity. Public-private IPCEI projects are unlocking large-scale investment across strategic sectors. But the scale and speed still trail global peers.

As Stuart Maggs, Director of Commercial Product at Field AI, put it:

“China is training highly skilled talent by the stadium. Europe’s shrinking rooms stand in stark contrast, a warning that talent is the true battleground of the 21st century.” 

Without a digitally fluent workforce, even the most advanced factories risk obsolescence. The future of industry will be decided by who can train and retain its builders.

What’s needed now is sharper execution: focused incentives, faster permitting, better talent pipelines, and tighter collaboration across the EU’s fragmented landscape. Compared to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act or China’s industrial masterplans, Europe remains reactive.

Still, a uniquely European opportunity exists. From precision tooling in Northern Italy to advanced machinery in Bavaria, Europe’s industrial legacy holds deep talent, know-how, and infrastructure. As Francesco Moiraghi of Unruly Capital puts it:

“Europe doesn’t need to start from scratch; it needs to retool its champions. Incumbents can become enablers.”

The biggest bottleneck isn’t ideas or policy. It’s scaling breakthroughs from lab to line. That requires growth capital, commercial risk appetite, and procurement capacity. 

Let’s Build Europe’s Industrial Future Together

The industrialisation of tomorrow will break from the past - and so will its leaders. To build that future, founders and funders must embed resilience as a foundation. 

Investors must be willing to underwrite atoms, not just apps. Policymakers must convene ecosystems, close the scale gap, and drive harmonisation across fragmented markets.

The next industrial leaders won’t just write code, they’ll weld atoms and software together.

At Speedinvest, we’re backing founders reimagining:
Energy | Automation | Robotics | Advanced manufacturing

If you’re building at this frontier, let’s talk!

Many thanks to Ellen Smeele, Melina Sanchez, Louis Fearn, Noemi Walzebuck, and Till Rösnick for their thoughtful feedback and contributions.