Europe's $35 trillion power play opportunity will define the next decade of returns, our new report highlights

‘Europe's Power Play’, from venture firm World Fund with contributions from NATO Innovation Fund and Kaya Partners, details Europe’s current ‘power crisis’ and how to fix it.

• Europe's Power Play argues that decades of optimising for efficiency over self-sufficiency have left Europe exposed across four critical sectors: energy, industry, critical materials and compute.
• The report explores how these power-critical sectors will represent a $35 trillion+ market by 2030.
• The publication spotlights European winners and calls on investors and policymakers alike to urgently back the technologies that will restore the region's power. 

Munich, 29 April 2026 - World Fund has released Europe's Power Play, a new report outlining how Europe faces a power deficit and why addressing it represents a generational investment opportunity.

The report outlines how Europe’s current vulnerabilities - exposed most recently during the Iran conflict-related energy shock - stem from decades of optimisation for efficiency over self-sufficiency. European countries have prioritised incremental innovation over technological leadership for decades, ceding ground in industries they once defined. These decisions have left Europe overly reliant on imported energy, foreign-controlled supply chains and non-European technology platforms. The result is an existential crisis that is forcing European incumbents into an aggressive buyer position, creating the strongest demand signal for deep tech the continent has seen in a generation. For investors, it opens a $35 trillion opportunity that will define the next decade of returns.

In numbers: The EU's natural gas import dependency rate stood at 85.6% in 2024. European countries have spent roughly €650 billion since the start of the energy crisis to shield consumers from soaring prices. Manufacturing now represents just 14.3% of EU GDP, well below the EU's own policy target of 20%. Meanwhile, Europe's share of global data centre capacity has fallen from over 25% in 2015 to just 15% today.

The report argues that power rests on five interlocking foundations: economic prosperity, energy abundance, industrial capacity, technological leadership, and national security. It explains why Europe is losing ground on all five, and how this situation can be reversed. This includes: reducing fossil fuel imports, breaking China's grip on critical materials, and building sovereign compute capacity.  

Notably, the technologies that will make Europe powerful across energy, industry, critical materials, and compute are also the technologies that enable decarbonisation, sovereignty and resilience. For example, clean energy generation cuts emissions while anchoring a cheap supply and decreasing exposure to global volatility. Encouragingly, many of these technologies are now reaching the maturity needed for broader commercial deployment. VC funding for European deep tech also continues to grow, reaching $20.3 billion in 2025 -  nearly a third of all VC investment. 

World Fund’s Europe's Power Play report features contributions from Kaya Partners and the NATO Innovation Fund.

A $35 trillion opportunity driven by urgency

World Fund analysis of publicly available data found that the power-critical sectors above represent a $35 trillion+ global market by 2030, with demand already being pulled forward by European incumbents under competitive pressure.

It details how giants, including Porsche, Airbus, SAP and Bosch are increasingly investing in and partnering with startups to secure supply chains, access compute and maintain competitiveness. This alignment between industrial demand, geopolitical pressure, and climate necessity is creating a powerful tailwind for European climate tech. 

The report also profiles seven companies to draw lessons from how European founders, backed by European capital, are building globally competitive businesses in these power-critical sectors. Companies profiled in detail include Octopus Energy (valued at $9 billion), IQM Quantum Computers (set to go public at $1.8 billion as Europe's first listed quantum company), and Isar Aerospace (the first European commercial space company to launch an orbital rocket from Continental Europe after raising €500 million+ ). 

Three things must happen now

The report puts forward clear calls to action for investors and policymakers:

1. Venture capital must scale to match the ambition: Europe produces world-class deeptech research but continues to under-finance its commercialisation.
2. Policy must accelerate deployment: Europe urgently needs compressed permitting timelines, public procurement leveraged as a demand signal, and funding instruments designed for the pace of technology markets.
3. Investors and policymakers must recognise sovereignty as an investment thesis: This move will help countries capture outsize returns while contributing to a stronger Europe.

Daria Saharova, Managing Partner at World Fund, said: "A powerful Europe is leading in core technologies of this era and is, by definition, a secure and decarbonised one. We have the research and the talent, but our funding remains far too shallow compared to the US. It’s time to stop managing decline and start financing leadership. This represents a generational $35 trillion opportunity.”   

Bo Lidegaard, Partner, Kaya Partners said: “Europe must stop underinvesting in its own future and adopt market structures directing private savings and institutional capital into innovation and growth. This will enable us to further develop and scale our most promising technologies and companies. Venture and growth capital are central to whether Europe can strengthen its industrial base, maintain climate leadership and build real economic and strategic resilience”.

Read Europe’s Power Play here.

The direct link to the Kaya Partners Policy section can be found here.

---

About World Fund

World Fund invests at the frontier of a new technology era. The firm backs entrepreneurs rebuilding the trillion-euro markets in Industry, Energy, and Food and Agriculture. World Fund supports them across success-defining stages to turn deep science into outlier companies. The fund has €300M AUM with offices in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam.