Press release
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany – January 15th 2026
NexWafe has received a €26 million equity
award letter under the EIC STEP Scale Up program, as part of the final award decisions for the 2025
calendar year,
alongside seven other companies. The award letter was granted in November 2025.
The EIC STEP Scale Up program, which was launched by the European Commission in November 2024, is designed to support European companies developing technologies critical to Europe’s strategic autonomy, including clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and industrial resilience. The program represented a total investment capacity of €300 million for 2025.
Through this award, NexWafe has also received the STEP Seal (Strategic Technologies for Europe), formally recognizing the company’s strategic importance for Europe.
The €26 million EIC STEP Scale Up investment is structured as equity - with a due-diligence process currently ongoing - and will form part of NexWafe’s current Series D funding round, supporting the company’s industrial scale-up and the start of commercial operations planned for 2027.
NexWafe is currently building its first industrial manufacturing facility in Bitterfeld, Germany, with an initial capacity of 50 MW, dedicated to the production of advanced solar wafers for both space and terrestrial applications.
NexWafe’s technology is well suited for space-grade solar cells, where requirements on material quality, performance stability, and radiation tolerance are critical. The company is seeing strong interest from space-sector customers, reflecting the relevance of its advanced thin wafer technology for next-generation satellite constellations and other space applications.
The EIC STEP Scale Up award further strengthens NexWafe’s position as a strategic European industrial player in advanced photovoltaic manufacturing, contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty across both the energy and space value chains. By enabling domestic production of critical components for space and high-performance solar applications, NexWafe supports Europe’s ambition to secure resilient and secure supply chains in strategically sensitive sectors.
About NexWafe
NexWafe is a German deep-tech company developing advanced direct gas-to-wafer solar wafer manufacturing technology, with a strong focus on space applications alongside high-performance terrestrial use cases. Founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Fraunhofer ISE, NexWafe enables next-generation solar manufacturing with high material efficiency, low energy consumption, and performance characteristics suited for demanding environments.
