U2V launches €60M fund for deeptech university spin-offs in Europe

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.