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# The "Marathon" of Deep Tech
- URL: https://fomo.observer/the-marathon-of-deep-tech/
- Published: 2026-01-13T21:08:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-19T07:45:21.000Z
- Description: The Long Road to Autonomous Delivery
- Author: Tarmo Virki
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1775906933246, #Import 2026-04-11 11:30

**HELSINKI, Nov 19** — On the Slush stage in late 2025, **Ahti Heinla**, co-founder and CEO of **Starship Technologies**, reflected on a decade spent building what he calls “science fiction that is a reality for hundreds of thousands of people every day.”

In a panel titled *Founding the Future*, Heinla and investor **Taavet Hinrikus** — a former colleague of Heinla from the early days of Skype — discussed the meticulous journey of scaling a deep-tech company from early Estonian prototypes to a global autonomous fleet.

#### **A Decade-Long Sprint**

Unlike the rapid nine-month software sprint that launched Skype, Heinla described Starship as a “marathon” that required years of “meticulous execution” and a strictly engineering-focused culture. Founded in 2014, the company was born from the realisation that last-mile delivery—an industry largely unchanged for decades—could be disrupted by autonomous sidewalk robots.

> “Building a company like Starship is fundamentally about solving incredibly hard problems that take an extended R&D phase,” Heinla noted.

He emphasised that while many startups rely on “network effects,” deep tech requires overcoming high technical risks and capital-intensive hardware development before market demand can even be proven.

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#### **The Commercial “Turning Point”**

Taavet Hinrikus, whose venture firm **Plural** co-led Starship’s **$50 million Series C** late 2025, noted that Starship is now “cheaper than a human courier,” a milestone that is powering the company’s rapid expansion. This success arrives as the [**2025 State of European Tech**](https://www.stateofeuropeantech.com/chapters/shaping-europes-tech-future?ref=fomo.observer) report by **Atomico** highlights a massive shift in the region’s focus: **Deep Tech and AI** now capture **36% of all European venture capital**, up from 19% just four years ago.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/08/7f/087f88ab-cb17-44cc-928d-9cfca14a3fb9/content/images/2026/04/11d478c9-5e33-4474-9415-465b64e0b81a_3000x2001-jpeg.jpg)

**Heinla and Taavet Hinrikus Photo: Vertti Luoma / Slush*

Despite this momentum, the report warns of a persistent **“growth gap.”** European deep-tech companies are still **five times less likely** than their U.S. counterparts to raise rounds exceeding **$100 million**. Furthermore, a “storytelling gap” often leads investors to perceive European deep-tech ventures as more “cautious and academic” rather than visionary market leaders.

#### **Scaling Beyond the “Bubble”**

Starship has defied these trends by achieving profitability, with its robots now completing 2 autonomous road crossings per **second** worldwide.

- **9 Million Deliveries**: Starship says it has completed more deliveries than all U.S. competitors combined.
- **Metric Optimisation**: Heinla described a rigorous phase where the team had to optimise cost-per-delivery by **250 times** to become commercially viable.
- **Global Footprint**: While the company is a “mass market” reality in Finland, the focus is now on replicating this in the US and UK through partnerships like the recently launched **Uber Eats** collaboration.

#### **Unanswered Questions**

While Starship serves as a blueprint for European deep tech, the discussion raised several open questions:

- **The Exit Bottleneck**: Atomico finds that a lack of **M&A exit routes** is the top barrier preventing VCs from writing more cheques for mature deep-tech firms.
- **Talent Mobility**: 18% of European founders still choose to incorporate in the US to access “deeper pockets” and faster scaling, a trend that initiatives like **EU-INC** hope to reverse.
- **Institutional Firepower**: How quickly can European pension funds—which currently allocate just **0.01% of assets** to VC—be mobilised to provide the “patient capital” these marathon companies require?

Heinla’s advice to the founders at Slush was rooted in this long-term grit:

> “Go and build something hard. Quick and easy successes are attractive, but building something difficult is far more dependable in the long run”.