Berlin-based Lunar Ventures, a pre-seed venture fund, announced the launch of Fund II, a €50M vehicle focused on early-stage deeptech startups in Europe and select regions of the United States.
Fund II is backed by limited partners including Isomer Capital, Lingotto (a subsidiary of Exor), Intesa Sanpaolo Endowment, and Grinnell College Endowment, along with a group of European founders and general partners.
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 $15B, 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, decentralized science, local-first infra, and more – all since discovered by the market. We are eager to meet the founders shaping what comes next,” adds Halsband.
Lunar Ventures Fund II utilisation
Lunar Ventures Fund II will focus on three key areas beyond current AI — tools accelerating scientific discovery where biology meets computation, and infrastructure enabling intelligent systems to function reliably in unpredictable and contested real-world environments.
With Fund II, the VC aims to invest in 25 to 30 companies at the pre-seed stage, writing initial checks of €750,000 to €1M.
Roughly 20 per cent of the fund will be allocated to U.S.-based startups located outside the Bay Area.
The German VC has already started investments from Fund II, including Berlin-based Bruin, which offers an integrated data stack platform, and London-based Lodestar Space, a startup developing autonomous robotic systems for satellite defense.
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.”
Both companies are in early development stages and address technically demanding challenges in their respective fields.
Lunar Ventures Fund I
Lunar Ventures Fund I closed in 2021 and initially targeted €20M, before eventually closing 2x oversubscribed at €40M.
Fund I was deployed among 25 different companies until August of 2023. Six of them (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: Deeptech pioneers
Lunar Ventures was originally founded in Berlin by partners Dr. Elad Verbin, Mick Halsband, and Luis Shemtov.
The firm will invest in the intersection of infrastructure, AI, autonomy, and science.
Lunar partners with technical founders at day 0 to scale from ideas through tier-1 follow-ons and to global outcomes.
Fund I backed 25 companies, including Deepset, Zama, Electric, Molecule, and Hathora — all later funded by top US VCs such as Upfront Ventures, Spark Capital, Google Ventures, SignalFire, and Founders Fund.
