U2V (University2Ventures) has completed the
first closing of its €60 million Fund I, with support from corporates including
anchor LP Jungheinrich via Uplift Ventures, alongside family offices, serial
entrepreneurs and industry executives.
The fund aims to support teams turning Europe’s
research into commercially viable deeptech companies, helping to bridge
academia and industry while contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty
and resilience.
Founded by Philipp Semmer, Michael Schmitt and
Johannes Triebs, U2V brings together scientific, technical and commercial
expertise, providing capital, strategic support, industry connections and
operational guidance to help companies scale. The founding team has more than
30 years of combined venture experience and a track record of backing over 50
startups and achieving more than 10 exits across previous funds (Earlybird-X
and Motu Ventures), with portfolio companies including Quantum Diamonds,
Greenlyte, Ncodin, Certivity, Twaice and LiveEO.
U2V has proprietary access to leading European
tech universities and ecosystems, including TU Munich, ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen,
École Polytechnique, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial College
London, DTU Denmark and Politecnico di Milano, alongside an industrial network
of more than 500 corporate partners. This combination enables structured
go-to-market pathways and early pilot customers for portfolio companies.
Through close collaboration with technology transfer offices and corporate innovation
units, U2V aims to accelerate commercialisation and follow-on funding rounds.
According to Dr. Philipp Semmer, Founding
Partner at U2V, Europe excels at generating scientific breakthroughs but still
faces challenges in turning them into global companies.
With U2V we’re fostering a substantial change
here: we help scientists become entrepreneurs, linking research, capital and
corporate partners to build Europe’s next generation of category-defining deeptech startups.
U2V, with Fund I, aims to back up to 25 pre-seed and seed startups across Europe in AI and novel computing, industrial technologies and cleantech, building a deeptech spin-off platform that helps turn university-originated technologies into commercially viable industrial solutions.