Agentic AI may be the darling of 2025’s megatrends, dominating headlines with promises of transformative potential.
But beneath the noise, another revolution is brewing, one with quieter but equally profound implications for the future of industry.
In the traditionally conservative worlds of manufacturing, energy and logistics, a new wave of deep tech innovation is taking root.
While political pundits debate the implications of Trump’s proposed tariff policies, a cadre of entrepreneurs is sidestepping speculation, opting instead to tackle inefficiencies baked into the backbone of global commerce.
And the way they are going about it?
Leveraging deep tech to revolutionize outdated processes, piece by piece.
The companies that succeed aren’t waiting for the perfect policy environment; they’re building systems designed to thrive in any scenario.
Their secret lies in solving entrenched inefficiencies while prioritizing adoption, creating technologies that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows and deliver measurable value.
Revolutionizing Warehousing: Deep Tech’s Role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Despite their critical importance, these sectors have long been overlooked by tech-first entrepreneurs in favor of flashier domains like AI and enterprise tech.
All of this is changing, fast.
Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in investments aimed at modernizing manufacturing and logistics, ranging from automation to energy storage and efficiency.
What has taken so long for us to get there?
“Material flow is the bedrock of our economy, but the process is still manual and unknown, and even uninteresting, to most founders and those who fund them,” explains Chris Walti, co-founder and CEO of Mytra, a robotics startup that is reworking warehouse automation.
As Chris and his peers are first to admit, these aren’t simple industries to disrupt even when the interest and funding is there.
Manufacturing and logistics are worlds of standardization and interconnection, where scale, security, and stability often trump incremental innovation. The entire system has a rhythm to it, and one innovation or new way of working does nothing to change how the heart of the beast beats.
As Chris points out, “You can’t just deploy a single piece of tech and call it a day. These industries demand full integration and scalability, which means startups need more than just workable point solutions that deliver small gains in efficiency.”
To make a dent in an industry as established as warehousing, entrepreneurs need to focus on paradigm shifts rather than marginal gains.
For Mytra, this meant rethinking what an efficient warehouse should look like to begin with.
“Traditional systems aren’t modular which is a core reason behind the inefficiencies we see” Chris begins. “Breaking the warehouse operation down into scalable, modular components allows us to bring a series of fundamental changes through software alone, enabling adaptability and efficiency in ways that the old ways of working simply can’t reach.”
This modular approach reflects a broader trend in industrial tech that is shifting away from hardware-dominant solutions toward software-driven adaptability. It’s a strategy that not only optimizes operations but also allows for flexibility in responding to market shifts or operational challenges.
Going head-to-head against powerful forces of the warehousing status quo isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the lessons learned from succeeding can be transformative.
“People in this industry, particularly those from the upcoming generations, value being intellectually challenged and they are by no means resistant to change,” Chris notes.
This perspective highlights a shift in workforce dynamics. Warehousing, traditionally seen as labor-intensive and repetitive, is now evolving into a field that offers more engaging and intellectually stimulating opportunities. This transformation has implications not only for operational efficiency but also for talent retention and job satisfaction.
“Working through the layers of status quo has taught us to lead with not just the tech, but its return on the bottom line and its ability to transform the work that goes into warehouses into something more engaging and safer,” Chris adds.
The intersection of technology and human-centric design is key. By reframing warehousing as a space of innovation, where robots and optimization replace forklifts and trucks, the industry can attract a new generation of talent.
“Something you could see a software engineer get excited about now that it’s not just forklifts and trucks, it’s robots and optimization,” Chris concluded.
Breaking Barriers: How Deep Tech Entrepreneurs Are Disrupting the Energy Industry
Energy storage and efficiency are critical to supporting the next wave of industrial innovation, and they face a similarly entrenched industry where each inch of change is hard won.
Peak Energy, led by co-founder Landon Mossburg, is at the forefront of this effort, focusing on scaling sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale applications; a challenge that is best left for entrepreneurs with a specific combination of technological prowess and grit.
“The U.S. is a battery startup graveyard,” says Landon.
“The technology is incredibly difficult to scale, not least because of how complex it is to change how the energy industry does business, “ he continues. “We position ourselves as a scale-up more than a startup. The technology might be new to those we bring it to, but it’s tested and true in its fundamentals, and we know the impact it can have on those who adopt it.”
Knowing what you’re doing, and that it works, is half the battle at best. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether the product gets adopted at scale with profitable unit-economics, without which all the company has is a great idea waiting for the execution it deserves.
Landon and his co-founders have built Peak Energy with this observation in mind from day one, noting how “the end goal isn’t to create a technology that gets patents and recognition. We’re here to change the industry for the better, and we need to build a profitable company while doing so.”
Breaking through a crust as thick as the one on the energy industry, means having enough runway and a product-market-fit that will turn to profit at scale. Figuring out what your clients want and how to deliver it in year two of operations simply isn’t a luxury deep tech entrepreneurs have in these industries.
“The founding team has decades of industry experience from places like Tesla and Enovix for a reason. Transformations like the one we are chasing don’t happen by trial and error, and you only get one shot at taking this to your customers who already have other solutions available, even if they are suboptimal”, Landon concluded.
Why Innovation Alone Isn’t Enough: How Deep Tech Founders Overcome Industry Resistance
Talk to any CEO involved in industrial tech and you’ll quickly learn that innovation isn’t enough to succeed.
Even the most advanced technology must navigate a layer of entrenchment before it can create real value, a morass built from tech that is already good enough, unquestioned ways of working and the all too human tendency to resist change.
Carbice, a company transforming thermal management systems, is facing this particular challenge head-on.
Baratunde Cola, founder of Carbice, explains, “Thermal management is a bottleneck for every industry that uses electricity or semiconductors from massive data centers to consumer electronics and there’s only so far you can push traditional products.”
“Our thermal interface pads are designed to handle extreme heat loads while maintaining the mechanical integrity and best performance of the system, but introducing a new technology into the mix isn’t as easy as just proving it performs better, ” Baratunde adds.
Here, Cola highlights a critical insight: outperforming the competition isn’t enough if the market remains unconvinced. Breaking through entails navigating a thicket of customer perceptions, expectations, and a general reluctance to try something new when the existing solution feels sufficient.
To overcome these hurdles, Carbice takes a holistic approach.
“We’re not just selling a product; we’re building trust with our partners by proving long-term supply-chain value not just with the product, but with our support and availability to co-design, iterate and troubleshoot with them,” Baratunde notes, “we can do this faster and more efficiently than others because our technology is easier to model in customer designs.”
This partnership approach shifts the narrative. Immediate technical advantages may be the starting point for the conversation, but the collaborative relationship needs to extend well beyond the initial sale.
“It’s not about what the technology does today but what it will do for their operations over its lifetime. In addition to transforming their product, we leverage our core technology to also simplify how they build it, and transform what they get from their supplier in lead times, shipping, and inventory storage,” he says.
This insight underscores a broader challenge in industrial tech. It’s not enough to innovate; companies must also reimagine how they deliver value, ensuring that the adoption of their innovations fits seamlessly into existing workflows while promising tangible, ongoing benefits.
“It’s not enough to design a superior product and you can’t just pitch innovation; you have to pitch impact,” Baratunde adds.
Scaling EV Infrastructure: How Simplicity Drives Adoption and Growth
While Carbice tackles the complexities of thermal management, Monta is addressing a different kind of challenge: streamlining EV infrastructure. Monta’s approach centers on simplicity and ease of adoption, two critical elements in industries resistant to change.
Casper Rasmussen, CEO of Monta, explains, “The EV ecosystem is fragmented. Drivers, installers, and charge point owners often operate within silos, using systems that don’t integrate or communicate effectively. That’s a huge barrier to scaling adoption.”
And it is exactly adoption that many industrial and deep tech companies lack, and it can be impossible to solve for if it wasn’t deliberately planned for.
“Adoption happens when using the solution feels natural. If the barrier to entry is high, people will stick with what they know, even if it’s inefficient, and you need to build with this in mind,” Casper added.
This strategy of removing friction is emblematic of the broader challenge in industrial tech.
At its core, the industrial transformation taking place today is a testament to the power of bold thinking and practical execution.
By designing systems that thrive in complex, interconnected environments and resonate with human behaviors and needs, companies are reshaping the backbone of global commerce even against the challenges of the status quo.