The deeptech sector has generated significant returns since exploding in popularity, leading to an influx of VC firms across Europe seeking to capitalise. As a result, in 2023 deeptech accounted for approximately 44% of all tech investments in Europe, up 18% since 2019. The result of this influx among VCs, however, is a lack of necessary specialisation and deep, technical expertise – plus, a lack of genuine, proven experience.

Lunar Ventures is looking to address this issue with Fund II, as a deeply technical team with significant experience in deeptech investment already under their belts.

Mick Halsband, Founder and General Partner at Lunar Ventures, says: “We set out to build a different kind of firm: a complementary team of engineers, operators, and PhDs dedicated to being the earliest and most technical partner to deeptech founders. At Lunar, we back technical builders from day zero, before traction or hype, with the in-house expertise to build conviction before consensus.

“In the past decade, capital flows into deeptech grew tenfold to $15 billion, yet founders still prioritise mission-aligned partners who understand the science behind the hype, and are in it for the long haul. Since 2019, Lunar has been an early believer in LLMs, homomorphic encryption, decentralised science, local-first infra, and more – all since discovered by the market. We are eager to meet the founders shaping what comes next.”

Investment by Lunar’s Fund II is already underway, with lead participation in pre-seed rounds with modern data stack team Bruin, as well as Lodestar, a space robotics team. Berlin-based Bruin unifies data quality, observability, governance, and transformation in one powerful platform, so teams can stop wrangling infrastructure and start driving the business forward.

London-based Lodestar Space builds autonomous, mission-ready robotic systems to identify, engage, and respond to in-orbit threats to critical space infrastructure. The team is already backed by both the UK and European Space Agencies to advance sovereign EU space robotics.

The Fund II portfolio has already seen two up-rounds. The fund’s eight investments to date have covered themes including multi-engine data processing, AI drug discovery for covalent medicines, compliant agentic AI for regulated environments, and more. Lunar is deploying Fund II among a total of 25-30 companies, with investments between €750K-€1 million euros at as early a stage as possible. The team expects approximately 20% of the fund to be invested in underserved US-based companies, outside of the Bay Area.

Neil Buchanan, CEO and Co-Founder of Lodestar Space, says: “Lunar had the technical depth to understand what we were building and the conviction to back us before anyone. They then brought clarity, conviction, and hands-on support when it mattered most.”

Fund II is backed by leading institutions including Isomer Capital, Exor’s Lingotto, the Intesa San Paolo Endowment, and the renowned Grinnell College Endowment, alongside a cohort of  tech founders and GPs from top European funds.

Lunar Ventures Fund I closed in 2021 and initially targeted €20 million, before eventually closing 2x oversubscribed at €40 million. Fund I was deployed among 25 different companies until August of 2023. Six of which (deepset, Zama, Molecule, Hathora, electric and unify) were subsequently invested in by tier-1 US VCs like Upfront Ventures, Spark Capital, Google Ventures, SignalFire, and Founders Fund. With Fund II, Lunar continues to focus on the transatlantic opportunity: exceptional early-stage deeptech talent in Europe, derisked for top investors in the US.

Lunar Ventures was originally founded in Berlin by partners Dr. Elad Verbin, Mick Halsband and Luis Shemtov. Since then, the team has expanded to 11 experts, further diversifying the firm's areas of expertise and reinforcing Lunar’s commitment to bringing unconventional backgrounds to venture capital. Lunar Ventures also announces the promotion of Morris Clay to General Partner. Clay is an AI engineer and serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in big tech and emerging startups.

As global interest in deeptech accelerates, Lunar Ventures is doubling down on its proven edge: partnering early with Europe’s most ambitious technical founders, and fuelling them to a global outcome with the capital depth of the US.

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