Innovation Industries Research
Investment Thesis
Innovation Industries is a European deep tech venture capital fund founded in 2017 by Chris Sonnenberg, Harm de Vries, Nard Sintenie, and Tom Schwarz. The firm backs companies built on ground-breaking science and engineering that can address fundamental societal challenges, on the belief that deep tech unlocks new pathways when disciplines like physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering converge. The team is deliberately technical: collectively the investment team holds 19 MSc degrees and 3 PhDs, and the firm takes a hands-on, long-term ownership approach to help founders navigate the long road from prototype to commercialization.
Sector Focus
Innovation Industries organizes its thesis around three focus areas. Industrial Tech covers semiconductors, integrated photonics, AI and machine learning, mechatronics, advanced materials, quantum computing, and high-precision engineering. Med Tech covers robotic devices, preventative and monitoring tools, diagnostics, medical equipment, regenerative medicine, neurostimulation, and synthetic biology. Food & Agri Tech covers genetics, microbiome science, crop protection, and agricultural robotics aimed at a more sustainable and resilient food system. Portfolio evidence skews heavily toward Industrial Tech (semiconductors, photonics, quantum, AI hardware), with a meaningful Med Tech book and a smaller Food & Agri-Tech slice.
Stage Focus
The firm invests across the full lifecycle, from pre-seed through growth. Two dedicated vehicles anchor the earliest stages: the Smart Industries and Medtech Thematic Technology Transfer (TTT) funds, run with Dutch university tech-transfer offices, which provide up to €250,000 in convertible loans to university spin-outs; and Early Stars Fund I, a Netherlands-only fund for pre-formal-investor companies with tickets of €1.5-2M. From there, the main fund follows companies through Series A, B, C and D rounds — recent lead and co-lead checks range from seed-stage TTT bridges to a $380M Series D (Nearfield Instruments) and a >€200M Series A (EUCLYD).
Check Size
Ticket sizes span roughly €2M at the low end (stated minimum ticket size) up to €150 million per company across multiple rounds, per the firm's stated selection criteria. TTT convertible loans are smaller (€250K), and Early Stars checks run €1.5-2M.
Lead Tendency
Innovation Industries frequently leads or co-leads: recent press explicitly credits the firm as sole or co-lead on rounds for eyeo (€40M Series A), Orbem (€55.5M Series B), Sandgrain (€13.5M Series A), ViCentra ($85M), Smart Robotics (€10M Series A, co-led with Rotterdamse Havendraken and Ernij Next), and EUCLYD (>€200M Series A, co-led with Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, and EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund).
Recent Activity
The firm has been highly active through 2025-2026: EUCLYD (Sep 2026, AI infrastructure), Nearfield Instruments (Jun 2026, $380M Series D at a $1.6B valuation), eyeo (May 2026, nanophotonic image sensors), Groove Quantum (Apr 2026, semiconductor spin-qubit processors), Smart Robotics (Apr 2026, pick-and-place robotics), the Alquion merger of VDL Hydrogen Systems and Battolyser Systems (Apr 2026), Axelera AI ($250M+, Feb 2026, edge AI silicon), Orbem (Jan 2026, MRI-based industrial inspection), Sandgrain (Dec 2025, hardware-anchored IoT security), and ViCentra (Sep 2025, insulin patch pumps). The firm also closed a successful exit in June 2025 when Danone acquired portfolio company The Akkermansia Company. Fund-level, Innovation Industries announced a €500M raise for deep tech investing in May 2024.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists 40 companies dating back to 2017, concentrated in Industrial Tech (Nearfield Instruments, Smart Photonics, Axelera AI, LionVolt, Carbyon, Luxexcel, Effect Photonics, Axign, Tempress, Morphotonics), Med Tech (ViCentra, Salvia Bioelectronics, Onera Health, Cassini, Microsure), and Food & Agri-Tech (VitalFluid, Aphea.Bio, Protealis, Solynta, The Akkermansia Company). Notable exit: The Akkermansia Company, acquired by Danone in June 2025.
Team
The firm is led by three co-founding partners — Chris Sonnenberg (ex-Parcom Capital, industrial engineer), Harm de Vries (author of Venture Capital Term Sheets and Venture Capital Deal Terms, prior venture-fund builder), and Nard Sintenie (ex-Philips, Arcadyan, NXP Semiconductors M&A) — plus partners Caaj Greebe (ex-Kempen life sciences & healthcare banker), Tom van Vuren (ex-Roland Berger), Daniel Kirchleitner (former Managing Director, Next47), and Vincent Kamphorst (ex-OC&C, NXP, ASML). The broader team spans investment directors, investment managers, analysts, in-house legal counsel (Fien Hogewoning, Melanie Loos), an ESG & Impact officer (Linda Kooning), and finance/back-office leadership (Nigel Diesveld, CFRO).
Decision Process
Structured as a multi-partner partnership with seven named partners plus a supporting bench of Investment Directors/Managers who evaluate new propositions and manage current investments — consistent with a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo GP.
Founder Preferences
The firm favors technical founders solving hard science and engineering problems with defensible IP, addressing large markets, and with realistic paths to becoming global players — explicitly requiring "unique and defendable IP and technology position" per its selection criteria.
Geographic Focus
Europe-wide, with offices in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Munich, and a strong concentration of Dutch spin-outs (TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, University of Twente) alongside German deep tech (EUCLYD, Salvia Bioelectronics origins).