Lunar Ventures invests 50 million euros in DeepTech startups – a new source of hope!

Lunar Ventures invests 50 million euros in DeepTech startups – a new source of hope!

The Berlin venture capital company Lunar Ventures has successfully closed its second fund worth 50 million euros. This fund will focus on investing in pre-seed stage DeepTech startups. The fund's geographical focus is 80 percent on Europe and 20 percent on underserved regions of the USA - apart from Silicon Valley. Mick Halsband, the founder and general partner of Lunar Ventures, emphasizes the importance of supporting founders from the start and the team's in-house expertise.

The new fund's investment strategy covers three main areas: AI infrastructure, TechBio and real-world infrastructure systems. One example from the portfolio is the London startup Lodestar, which develops autonomous robots suitable for extreme space conditions. Lunar Ventures plans sums between 750,000 and 1 million euros for each startup investment.

Successful history and investment potential

Lunar Ventures' first fund supported a total of 25 companies with a volume of 40 million euros. The companies supported include Deepset, Zama and Electric. These companies were later able to receive capital from well-known American venture capitalists such as Upfront Ventures, Spark Capital and Google Ventures.

Alberto Cresto, who also works as a general partner, highlights the great potential in the European market and points to the technical expertise and the top-class universities. However, there are challenges to be overcome, such as the lack of growth capital and the reluctance of European companies to invest in innovative technologies.

The team behind Lunar Ventures

The Lunar Ventures team is made up of experienced professionals. Eyal Baroz brings over 25 years of experience in semiconductors, robotics, defense and telecommunications as a Robotics Partner. Morris Clay, also a partner, has worked at large tech companies and leading AI startups for more than 15 years and is a founder in computer vision and blockchain.

Peter Crane, Partner for TechBio, has experience building and investing in companies in this sector, while Mick Halsband, General Partner, is CTO with 20 years of experience in critical systems development. The team is supported by Petra Jurlina, an operations manager with extensive experience in fundraising and reporting, and financial expert Teddy Ramarotafika.

Together with the other general partners, Or (Luis) Shemtov and Elad Verbin, as well as the investment team around Cindy Wei, Lunar Ventures is well positioned to master the challenges in the European DeepTech market and to support companies with global visions that would ideally like to win their first customers in the USA.

Eight investments from the new fund have already been made, including a stake in Bruin, an online platform for data scientists.