Lunar Ventures is one of the most distinctive venture firms in the European deep tech landscape. Based in Berlin, the firm focuses on pre seed and seed stage investments in highly technical software companies. Lunar Ventures stands apart due to its team of engineers, operators and PhD level experts who support founders building complex and science driven technologies. Its focus is on what comes after the current wave of artificial intelligence, backing the next generation of technical builders before their fields become mainstream ideas. This article explores the background, strategy, leadership, funding activity and portfolio of Lunar Ventures, using insights from recent announcements and industry coverage.
What Makes Lunar Ventures Different
Lunar Ventures is known for an investment approach grounded in deep technical knowledge. The team partners with founders from the very earliest stage, even before traction, revenue or market validation. Their work includes hands on technical review, infrastructure guidance and early research support. This allows the firm to build conviction in areas that other investors are not yet ready to enter.
Supporting Technical Founders
The firm was created to offer a different style of early stage support. Instead of relying on market signals, Lunar Ventures conducts in depth scientific and engineering analysis. This enables them to understand frontier technologies such as homomorphic encryption, decentralised science, local first infrastructure, autonomy and next generation artificial intelligence. Their approach helps founders validate core assumptions and turn frontier ideas into viable companies.
Investing Before Concepts Become Trends
Lunar Ventures has a history of entering sectors long before they reach widespread interest. The firm was early to large language models, encryption for machine learning, autonomous robotics and novel infrastructure methods. Many of these fields have since experienced rapid growth, confirming the long term nature of the firm’s thesis.
Focus Areas and Investment Strategy
Intersection of Deep Tech and Software
The firm invests in companies that sit at the intersection of software and deep technical research. This includes artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, core infrastructure, blockchain, robotics and space technologies. The focus is always on highly defensible intellectual property and engineering breakthroughs.
European First, United States Second
The primary emphasis is on European founders, with a commitment to invest about twenty percent of the latest fund into United States based companies located outside major hubs such as the Bay Area. This aligns with their goal to support underserved regions and diversify access to deep tech capital.
Backing Founders Solving Essential Problems
Lunar Ventures focuses on technical problems that have long term impact on computing, science and infrastructure. Their founders build essential tools, research driven products and systems that support mission critical applications.
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Lunar Ventures Funding and Growth of the Firm
Launch of Fund Two
In May twenty twenty five, Lunar Ventures announced the launch of Fund Two, a fifty million euro pre seed fund. This fund will invest between seven hundred fifty thousand and one million euro in about twenty five to thirty companies. The new fund was supported by major institutional partners including Isomer Capital, Exor Lingotto, the Intesa San Paolo Endowment and the Grinnell College Endowment. Several well known founders and general partners from European funds also contributed.
This fund follows the success of Fund One, which closed at forty million euro. Fund One backed twenty five companies including Deepset, Zama, Electric, Molecule and Hathora. These companies later attracted investment from global names such as Upfront Ventures, Spark Capital, Google Ventures, SignalFire and Founders Fund.
Market Context and Deep Tech Trends
The deep tech sector has grown rapidly in Europe. By twenty twenty three, deep tech represented more than forty percent of all European technology investment. This shift has attracted many new investors, but Lunar Ventures argues that the market still lacks specialised expertise. Their strategy emphasises long term technical commitment rather than hype driven decision making.
Early Activity from Fund Two
Fund Two is already active. Recent investments include Bruin, a Berlin based company building a unified data quality and governance platform, and Lodestar Space, a London based robotics team building autonomous systems to protect orbital infrastructure. The fund has also invested in companies working on multi engine data processing, artificial intelligence for drug discovery and agentic artificial intelligence for regulated industries.
Leadership and Team
Lunar Ventures was founded in 2017 by Dr Elad Verbin, Mick Halsband and Luis Shemtov. The leadership team combines deep academic research, entrepreneurial experience and infrastructure expertise. Their shared vision is to be the most technical early stage partner available to deep tech founders.
Promotion of Morris Clay
The firm also announced the promotion of Morris Clay to General Partner. Clay is an artificial intelligence engineer and entrepreneur with more than fifteen years of experience in advanced computing. His appointment strengthens the firm’s ability to support frontier tech founders.
A Team Built for Technical Due Diligence
The eleven person team operates like an engineering and research lab. They conduct detailed technical analysis, run experiments, support product architecture and help founders refine early prototypes. This makes the firm more hands on than most venture funds at this stage.
Portfolio
| Company Name | Industry |
|---|---|
| Zama | Encrypted machine learning |
| Deepset | Artificial intelligence and language understanding |
| Lodestar Space | Space robotics and orbital security systems |
| Electric | Decentralised science and research platforms |
| Molecule | Biotech and decentralised research funding |
| Hathora | Cloud infrastructure for real time applications |
| Bruin | Data infrastructure and governance |
Vision for the Future
Supporting the Next Wave of Deep Tech
Lunar Ventures is positioning itself as a long term partner for the next generation of research driven companies. Their focus on early stage scientific innovation aligns with the increasing need for privacy first systems, autonomous infrastructure, secure computing and mission critical robotics.
Bridging Europe and the United States
By supporting European founders and selectively backing underserved United States markets, the firm aims to create a transatlantic pipeline for frontier technologies.
Building a Sustainable Deep Tech Ecosystem
The team believes that long term progress in deep tech requires patient capital, specialist knowledge and mission aligned support. Their approach is designed to help founders navigate complex scientific challenges and build globally relevant companies.
Conclusion
Lunar Ventures is one of the most technically specialised venture firms operating in Europe. With its fifty million euro second fund, deep engineering expertise, global network and commitment to pre seed innovation, the firm is shaping the future of research driven software startups. By supporting founders from day zero and focusing on what comes next after current artificial intelligence trends, Lunar Ventures continues to play a central role in advancing the European deep tech ecosystem.