Europe imports most of its chips, leaving it exposed as transistor scaling grinds to a halt and AI, autonomous driving, and 6G networks drive insatiable demand. Cloudberry, the Helsinki-London VC duo that’s just closed a €30m debut fund to back pre-seed and seed startups cracking the code in semis, photonics, and advanced materials.
With check sizes ranging from €400k to €1m, and LPs such as GlobalFoundries and Radiant Opto-Electronics in tow, they’re plugging founders directly into factory floors and tech forecasts that others can only dream of.
Laser-focused bets that leave rivals in the dust
Cloudberry’s founding partner, René Kromhof, scaled Heptagon from startup to acquisition by ams AG after roles at ASML, bringing deep operational know-how in optical sensors. Veera Pietikäinen offers finance and deep-tech support, with nearly a decade of experience supporting early-stage fundraising and strategy as a fractional CFO. General partner Lawrence Lundy-Bryan targets photonic memory and edge computing, motivated by Europe’s talent yet lack of specialist investors; the team aims to foster the continent’s next trillion-dollar hardware giant for industrial resilience.
Cloudberry invests in compute platforms for better performance-per-watt, photonic systems for telecoms and medtech, and materials tools for scalable production. Other featuresinclude hands-on supply chain networks from ASML, Bosch, and ams Osram, plus LP-driven industrial insights unavailable elsewhere.
Unlike generalists such as Atomico or local Helsinki funds such as Lifeline Ventures, or photonics-focused PhotonVentures, Cloudberry claims to be Europe’s first dedicated early-stage semiconductor specialisation fund.
What’s next?
Cloudberry plans to back 20-30 startups over the next few years, prioritising European R&D talent to build self-sufficiency in compute, sensing, and materials. Partnerships like GlobalFoundries will align tech roadmaps across markets such as Physical AI and Industry 4.0, aiming to retain talent and reduce global dependencies.
