Cloudberry Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Cloudberry Ventures is a London-based DeepTech venture capital firm founded by Mahir Sahin, a former senior Google executive (2009-2025) and ex-lead advisor at Alphabet's Moonshot X Factory (X, the moonshot factory). Cloudberry backs teams with defensible technical moats, whether data-driven software, patented hardware, or a combination of both, that serve as building blocks of societal and economic infrastructure. The firm's stated worldview is that the "SaaSpocalypse" has arrived: building an exponential digital future on top of a linear physical supply chain is unsustainable, and the physical substrate that powers AI (compute, materials, energy, financial rails) urgently needs investment. Cloudberry organizes its focus around three pillars: industrial infrastructure (advanced materials, energy, autonomous manufacturing), compute infrastructure (next-gen memory, quantum, photonics, edge AI), and financial infrastructure (blockchain-enabled settlement and digital assets). The firm also explicitly positions itself against "IP strip-mining," where US investors buy European DeepTech at a discount and relocate the IP to the US.
Stage Focus
Cloudberry invests from Seed through Series A, with occasional Pre-Seed activity (e.g., Peak Quantum) and selective follow-ons into later rounds for existing portfolio companies (e.g., Quantum Brilliance's Series A, Arf's Series A, Syntiant's Series C as a legacy holding).
Check Size
Typical ticket size is €1-2 million (roughly $1-2.2M), per the firm's own €50 million fund announcement (March 2026).
Lead Tendency
The firm is open to both leading and co-investing, depending on the company, round structure, and syndicate, prioritizing usefulness to founders and building the right investor base over consistently leading.
Recent Activity
The current €50M fund launched publicly in March 2026 and is actively deploying. Confirmed 2025-2026 investments (from the firm's own portfolio page) include Sofab Inks (Seed, Jun 2026, perovskite solar cell ink chemistry), Quantum Dice (Seed, Feb 2026, probabilistic processing units), Xavveo (Seed, Dec 2025, photonic RADAR for autonomous vehicles), Peak Quantum (Pre-Seed, Dec 2025, error-protected superconducting QPUs), Rootcause (Seed, Oct 2025, causal intelligence platform), and Belfort Labs (Seed, Aug 2025, fully homomorphic encryption accelerator hardware). Earlier fund/legacy activity (2024-2025) includes Matoha, Fisent, Quantum Brilliance, Hydgen, Syntiant, Keyrails, Voltai, and Arf.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable names include Quantum Brilliance (room-temperature diamond-based quantum accelerators, operates the world's first commercial quantum diamond foundry in Australia), Syntiant (ultra-low-power edge AI chips, publicly reported to have filed for IPO in mid-2026), Arf (cross-border payments liquidity platform working with Circle/USDC and Stellar), and Xavveo (Berlin-based photonic RADAR startup covered by Tech.eu for closing a Western defense sensing gap). Sahin's prior vehicle, Cloudberry Pioneer Investments, reportedly achieved an 86% gross IRR and 2.4x MOIC in 16 months, with Quantum Brilliance as a notable holding carried into the new fund's narrative.
Team
- Mahir Sahin, Founder & General Partner — 16 years at Google (2009-2025), former lead advisor at Alphabet's Moonshot X Factory; advisor to the Airbus Executive Committee (Airbus STAR Program).
- Katrin Wilking, Deep Tech Investor / Partner — writes the firm's public thesis essays (Substack); King's College London.
- Jane Choi (Manyuchoi), Investment Associate — quantitative engineering background spanning spacecraft operations and low-latency trading systems.
- Julia Holze, Venture Partner — Founder of Cosmic Gold; 25+ years across startups, academia, DAX 30 companies, and strategic consulting in deep-tech venture building.
- Scott Beaumont, Venture Partner — former President of Google Asia-Pacific and EVP at T-Mobile.
- Chris Krischnig, Venture Partner — serial ad-tech entrepreneur and former senior Google Account Executive.
- Kate Prebble, Venture Partner — quantum physicist; board observer at multiple quantum computing companies.
- Jong Sang Choi, Venture Partner — led deep-tech investing at Legal & General; former Head of Europe Investments at Samsung.
- Dr. Barbara Stampf, Venture Partner — 25+ years in HR leadership at Philips and NXP; executive search and go-to-market talent strategy.
- Ehsanul Islam, Venture Partner — VP of Engineering at Qualcomm and Managing Director of Qualcomm Asia.
The fund's LPs and advisors reportedly include Mark Bennett (VP, Google Partnerships) and Neil Ventura (ex-De Beers).
Decision Process
Partnership-style: the Founder/GP works alongside a Partner and Associate on primary deal execution, supported by an unusually large bench of ~15 Venture Partners who provide hands-on technical and commercial diligence across compute, materials, energy, and financial infrastructure.
Founder Preferences
Cloudberry looks for founders with deep technical insight, urgency, resilience, and the ability to translate complex scientific or engineering breakthroughs into a compelling commercial narrative — capable of recruiting talent, winning customers, and raising capital. Teams need not have revenue at Seed, but should show technical validation, customer pull, and a credible path to a defensible moat (patents, proprietary data, unique engineering, or regulatory advantage) that strengthens as the company scales. A warm introduction is welcomed but explicitly not required.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in London, with a stated strong interest in European DeepTech, but investing globally — current portfolio spans the UK, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, the US, and Singapore.