Flyby Newsletter
July 29, 2025

Deep dives and disruptors: Your July innovation radar

Digital twin technology in 2025 is rapidly advancing, becoming an essential tool across industries for real-time simulation, optimization, and predictive insights. Fueled by AI, IoT, and edge computing, digital twins move beyond static models to intelligent systems that adapt and learn continuously. Applications span manufacturing, healthcare, smart cities, and supply chains, enabling preventive maintenance, personalized treatment, and efficient resource management. Market growth is expected to reach over $110 billion by 2028, with digital twins driving productivity gains, sustainability, and innovation scale. Companies adopting these solutions gain competitive edge through faster decision-making, reduced risks, and deeper operational understanding, marking a shift toward interconnected, AI-enhanced digital ecosystems.

(Est. reading time: 5 mins)

Hey there 👋

It's time for another FounderNest Flyby Newsletter, where we help you stay sharp with innovation trends and insights.


In today’s newsletter:

  • 🗞️ Quick hits from this week’s news
  • 💡 Thoughts from our blog
  • 📡 5 emerging trends from our industry radar
  • 💼 This week’s digital twins deep dive
  • 🤖 Product enhancements: What FounderNest has been busy building recently

Quick hits.

Short and sweet - news that caught our eye this week.

Princeton energy modelers showed enhanced geothermal systems could furnish up to 20% of U.S. electricity by 2050, leaping to #3 clean-firm resource behind wind and solar if cost curves hold.

CNN reported Apple, Meta and Disney doubling down on immersive concerts and VR sports streams, framing 2025 as the tipping point for mainstream headset entertainment despite past false starts.

IBM’s roadmap unveils “Starling,” a fault-tolerant quantum computer planned for 2029 that will run 20 000× more operations than today’s machines, hosted in a new New York quantum data-center.

Thoughts from our blog.

bottlenecks

The bottlenecks killing innovation at scale

New research from 50+ innovation leaders shows most organizations face hidden bottlenecks that derail promising ideas.

Read article

scouting-for-success

Scouting for success: The art of innovation’s ebb and flow

Companies stay innovative by balancing two key approaches: combining proactive scouting of new opportunities with strategic reflection.

Read article

smart-metering-1

12 companies that are focused on AMI

The Advanced Metering Infrastructure market is growing steadily, fueled by $13.6B in public funding, and smart energy demand.

Read article

slide-deck

Why 30-slide decks are killing internal innovation

It shouldn’t take 30 slides to approve a $10K experiment, yet in 2025, tight scrutiny and pressure for fast results make this the norm.

Read article

Industry radar.

Stay ahead of the curve every newsletter we give you 5 of the hottest topics and trends across our reference industries.

1. Manufacturing

Venture capital in advanced manufacturing soared to €1.1B in 2024, up 63%, with robotics alone pulling in 45% of all funding. Germany leads in deal volume, and M&A exits jumped 50%, but IPOs? Just one in five years.

Screenshot 2025-07-25 at 17.23.04

A sample of advanced manufacturing companies in FounderNest

2. Energy

Global energy investment is set to hit a record $3.3T in 2025, with $2.2T flowing into clean tech like solar and storage systems.

Meanwhile, the World Bank backs the world’s biggest hydropower project with $1B, and next-gen energy tech is reshaping how we power the planet.

3. Aerospace

Space tech startups raised a record $18B+ across 1,200+ rounds through mid-2025, led by massive deals like Apple’s $1.7B bet on Globalstar and Relativity’s $1.25B rocket play. The U.S. leads the charge, but Europe, China, and Japan are rising fast, fueling reusable rockets, space security, and AI-powered satellite tech in one of the hottest markets today.

4. Food production

FoodTech VC funding dropped 59% in 2023, but 2025 is seeing a rebound, especially for startups in sustainable farming, food-as-medicine, and AI-powered supply chains. Investors now demand real traction, climate impact, and clear paths to profit, while late-stage deals, automation tech, and strategic M&As are shaping the future of food.

5. Entertainment and media

The media and entertainment industry is set to hit $46.89B by 2030, fueled by AI-driven content, immersive experiences, and over 146,000 funding rounds averaging $49.3M each. With 456,400 patents, 33M jobs, and rising stars like Fellaz and AI Aware, the sector is booming with innovation, from generative media to blockchain-powered fan economies.

Get in touch to see how we can help

Deep dive: Industrial digital twins for net-zero manufacturing.

Comprehensive, personalized industry insights - straight from our platform.

Digital-twin deployments have crossed from pilot to scale, driven by EU and US funding calls that tie twin adoption to decarbonization metrics.

  • Gartner expects the digital-twin market to reach US $125B by 2030, with manufacturing twins underpinning productivity gains of 30-60% and waste cuts of 20%.
  • The SMART USA Institute opened a US $50M call for semiconductor-process twins, offering up to US $20M per project to cut defect rates and strengthen domestic supply chains.
  • EU Horizon projects (Industry 4.0 Twin Transition) are funding integrated twins for remanufacturing, robotics and sustainability with budgets of €35-42M per topic.
  • Real-time AI/edge adoption: LG Electronics’ Changwon plant’s twin updates every 30 seconds, delivering 17% productivity gain and 30% energy savings, a reference case for SMEs

Find the full research here.


investor-newsletter-2

Next-level enhancements boosting product adoption at FounderNest.

We’ve launched a series of game-changing product enhancements that are already driving major impact for innovation teams, M&A and CVC teams! Key updates include an enhanced search, powerful new non-company discovery, and multiple UI improvements to ease the experience with the product. We have also boosted data reliability and introduced a prompt enhancer to speed up company scouting. Plus, our smart analytics are now faster and smoother than ever, delivering an even more seamless user experience.

Discover our new features

thomas

“The most prominent impact is certainly finding opportunities much faster than before.”

- Thomas Froehlich (Roche)

Thanks for reading! If you want to explore the space for yourself, or any others, you can run your own search directly in FounderNest.

Feel free to suggest a topic for us to dive into next! If you have any questions, feedback, or just want to connect you can get in touch or connect on LinkedIn.

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