Meaning & use
deep tech
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountableinformalbusiness
Technology based on major scientific or engineering breakthroughs, such as quantum computing or advanced materials, rather than on improvements to existing products.
Grammar: Uncountable noun: deep tech is expensive to develop.
Patterns
- deep tech in something
Investors are putting more money into deep tech, even though returns can take a decade.
Her startup is a deep tech company working on new battery materials.
Deep tech often starts in university laboratories.
adjectivebefore a nouninformalbusiness
Describing a company, product or investment built on advanced science or engineering.
Grammar: Comes before a noun: a deep tech startup.
The fund backs deep tech startups in medicine and robotics.
He left a software job to join a deep tech firm building satellites.
The conference focused on deep tech solutions for farming.
Common combinations
- deep tech startup
- The deep tech startup spent years perfecting its sensor.
- invest in deep tech
- The fund prefers to invest in deep tech.
- deep tech investor
- A deep tech investor must be patient.
- deep tech company
- The deep tech company licenses patents from universities.
- deep tech research
- Deep tech research needs expensive laboratories.
Synonyms and how they differ
- advanced technology
- Advanced technology is a general phrase for anything cutting edge, while deep tech stresses a basis in hard science.
- frontier technology
- Frontier technology emphasizes being newest, but deep tech emphasizes the scientific depth behind it.
- hard tech
- Hard tech is a close, even more informal, term and is often used for physical hardware.
Opposites
Word family
- technology noun
- practical use of scientific knowledge
- technological adjective
- relating to technology
- tech noun
- informal short form of technology
Commonly confused: deep tech or deep learning?
deep tech vs deep learning
Deep learning is one specific kind of machine learning, whereas deep tech is a broad category of science-based technology.
Practice
Which company would most likely be called a deep tech startup?
Choose one answer.
Deep tech rests on major scientific or engineering advances, as quantum chips do. The other options use existing technology and need no breakthrough.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “deep tech”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.