London-based Cloudberry Ventures has launched a $58 million fund aimed at early-stage deeptech companies, presenting the vehicle as a response to growing pressure on the infrastructure that underpins artificial intelligence. The firm was founded by Mahir Sahin, a former Google executive and former advisor to Alphabet’s X, who has argued that the next wave of technology value creation will come less from software applications alone and more from the physical and financial systems that support them. The launch positions Europe as a key source of the scientific talent and technical breakthroughs needed to build businesses in computing, energy, robotics, and next-generation financial infrastructure.
Fund Launch
The new fund is set to invest from Seed to Series A, with typical ticket sizes of $1.15 million to $2.3 million, and a strategy centred on Europe while allowing for broader international deployment. Cloudberry says it will focus on industrial infrastructure, compute infrastructure, and financial infrastructure, reflecting a view that the strongest moats in the AI era will be built at the foundational layer rather than only in end-user software. In statements surrounding the announcement, Sahin said current AI development is becoming difficult to sustain unless hardware, supply chains, and enabling systems scale in parallel with software demand.
Investment Thesis
Cloudberry’s target areas include advanced materials, energy systems, autonomous manufacturing, next-generation memory, quantum computing, photonics, edge AI, blockchain-enabled settlement, and digital assets. The firm’s public messaging suggests it sees deeptech not as a narrow vertical, but as the core layer required to support broader industrial and economic change as AI adoption accelerates. That interpretation is reinforced by Sahin’s LinkedIn post, where he said his years scaling platforms at Google convinced him that the most durable value is created where compute, physical systems, and financial rails intersect.
Market Context
A central argument behind the fund is that Europe continues to generate strong science and intellectual property, yet still struggles to turn those assets into global technology leaders at the same rate as other markets. Cloudberry argues that deeptech founders often need patient capital, operational support, and commercial guidance that conventional venture models do not always deliver, especially in sectors with longer product cycles and heavier technical risk. The firm has also framed its strategy as a response to what it describes as the underpricing and overseas transfer of European innovation, saying the region needs more investors capable of combining scientific fluency with scale-up expertise.
Early Portfolio and Backing
Cloudberry said the new fund has already backed Berlin-based Xavveo, a startup developing photonics radar systems intended to provide 360-degree awareness for robotics and autonomous platforms. The firm has also highlighted results from its earlier vehicle, Cloudberry Pioneer Investments, stating that it produced an 86% gross IRR and a 2.4x MOIC in 16 months, with portfolio companies including Quantum Brilliance, Keyrails, Hydgen, and Syntiant. Around the launch, Cloudberry pointed to support from advisors and limited partners with backgrounds spanning Google, Qualcomm, Airbus, De Beers, and major financial institutions, underscoring its effort to pair capital with operating experience and international market access.
The debut of Cloudberry’s new fund adds to a broader push in Europe to capture more value from deep scientific and industrial innovation as AI places new strain on energy, chips, compute capacity, and supply chains. For the firm, the central bet is that the next major winners will not come only from fast-moving software layers, but from companies building the harder infrastructure on which advanced digital systems depend. Whether that thesis produces long-term outperformance will take time to assess, but the launch signals continued investor appetite for capital-intensive technologies tied to Europe’s industrial competitiveness and the future architecture of AI.