Helsinki- and London-based Cloudberry has announced a €30 million initial close for what it describes as Europe’s first venture fund dedicated exclusively to semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials. The fund will invest at pre-seed and seed stages, focusing on technologies linked to compute, connectivity, sensing, and power, at a time when European policymakers are seeking to strengthen domestic chip capabilities under the EU Chips Act. Backed by a mix of public and private investors—including Finnish state-owned investor Tesi alongside industrial players such as GlobalFoundries and Radiant Opto-Electronics—the fund plans to support up to 20 early-stage companies across Europe, targeting a segment of the semiconductor value chain that has historically attracted less venture capital than large-scale manufacturing projects.
Cloudberry is a venture capital firm based in Helsinki and London that invests exclusively in early-stage companies working in semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials. The firm focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups developing technologies related to compute, connectivity, sensing, and power, with an emphasis on deep-tech innovations emerging from European research and industrial ecosystems.
Anchored by Finnish state-owned investment company Tesi, Cloudberry’s fund is supported by international LPs across Europe, Asia and the United States, including GlobalFoundries, one of the world’s largest semiconductor foundries, Radiant OptoElectronics, a global leader in photonics, and numerous family offices and angel investors. Other than Tesi’s support, the fund has secured 85 per cent of its capital from outside Finland.
The launch comes as Europe accelerates its EU Chips Act, a €43 billion initiative to double the continent’s global semiconductor market share to 20 per cent by 2030. The act aims to ensure Europe’s capacity in advanced chip design and manufacturing, strengthening resilience across global supply chains.
Beyond recent policy shifts, the semiconductor and photonics industries are expanding rapidly. Together, they form a global market of approximately USD 1.5 trillion, expected to surpass USD 2 trillion within the decade. Both sectors continue to grow faster than global GDP and underpin strategically critical industries in AI, space, telecommunications, and defence.
“We see this as the start of a long-term effort to build Europe’s semiconductor ecosystem,” said Veera Pietikäinen, Founding Partner at Cloudberry. “Europe has world-class talent and deep technology capabilities in semiconductors and photonics, but has lacked investors who truly understand how to support and scale them. We are now building a specialist platform that helps these companies grow and strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty in the process.”
In Europe, the photonics sector includes more than 5,000 companies and employs over 430,000 people, while the semiconductor industry adds hundreds of thousands more across design, materials, equipment, packaging and specialised R&D. Despite their strategic importance, most investment still flows to large manufacturing and infrastructure projects, leaving early-stage innovation and deep-tech ventures underfunded.
“The Cloudberry team, experienced deep-tech investors and industry operators with broad networks, are in a good position to capture value in domains that not only have significant market opportunities but also advance strategically critical technologies. Finland has a strong legacy of innovation in semiconductors and photonics, so the new fund is a welcome addition to the local VC ecosystem”, explains Asseri Lehtiniemi, Investment Director in Tesi’s Fund Investments team.
Cloudberry aims to close this gap by investing up to €1 million in pre-seed and seed rounds as well as maintaining sufficient reserves to support portfolio companies as they scale. The team plans to invest in up to 20 companies across Europe, ranging from early R&D spinouts to teams commercialising innovations within the fund’s core focus areas of semiconductors, photonics and advanced materials.
“The semiconductor industry requires investors who understand technical complexity and the rigorous qualification needed to build strong foundry partnerships. At GlobalFoundries, we are committed to supporting the next generation of innovators as they scale from prototype to volume, and we can help them reach global scale. Cloudberry’s focused approach fills a crucial gap in early-stage hardware funding, giving these companies the backing and expertise they need to grow,” says Manfred Horstmann, General Manager and Senior Vice President at GlobalFoundries Europe.
Cloudberry’s long-term ambition is to build Europe’s leading platform for semiconductor investment and support, spanning from early-stage to growth-stage capital. The firm’s experienced team combines decades of operational, technical and venture expertise from companies such as ASML, Bosch, Heptagon and leading deep-tech VC firms, giving Cloudberry a unique ability to identify and scale Europe’s most promising semiconductor innovators.
“Cloudberry connects us directly to Europe’s semiconductor and photonics ecosystem. We’ve expanded significantly in the Nordics because the region is central to next-generation materials and optics. This partnership gives us early visibility to the teams building these breakthroughs,” said Justin Wang, Chairman and President of Radiant Opto-Electronics.
Click here to read more VC news.
Read the orginal article: https://arcticstartup.com/cloudberry-raises-e30m-for-semiconductor-fund/
