The notion that European venture capital (VC) lacks the firepower to compete with its US counterparts has been a persistent theme in recent years. However, a recent development in Berlin may suggest otherwise. Cherry Ventures, a Berlin-based VC firm, has closed its latest fund at a significant $500 million, with plans to split the funds between early-stage rounds and follow-on rounds at Series B and beyond.<\/p>\n
A statement from Cherry Ventures outlined its ambitious goals, aiming to help build the “first trillion-dollar company in Europe.” This move is seen as a bold attempt to reverse the “doom and gloom” narrative surrounding Europe’s economy. While this is a commendable effort, the question remains whether European startups are truly on the trillion-dollar path.<\/p>\n
Currently, evidence of European startups reaching this milestone is scarce. For instance, recent research estimated that AI companies in Europe raised a mere $8 billion in 2024, compared to the $97 billion raised in the US for AI startups. The disparity in funding is not the only issue; capital is a critical component of a startup’s success, and European VCs are aware of this.<\/p>\n
Cherry Ventures did not provide a timeline for its aspirations, leaving room for speculation. In the UK, the largest startup market in Europe, venture capital funding for UK startups declined by 50% in October, with only around $2.9 billion secured, according to a report by Dealroom and HSBC Innovation Banking.<\/p>\n
Cherry Ventures itself did not even appear in last year’s HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Ranking, with Earlybird Digital East Fund taking the top spot. Meanwhile, Revolut backer Balderton Capital recently managed to raise $1.3 billion for European tech startups, while acknowledging that Europe is missing out on the AI boom.<\/p>\n
Cherry Ventures’ last fund, announced in early 2022, came in at \u20ac300 million ($312 million). The VC’s portfolio includes notable companies such as space-tech The Exploration Company, grocery delivery startup Flink, neurosurgical microbots company Robeaute, Greyhound owner Flix SE, and logistics unicorn Forto.<\/p>\n
The new fund’s limited partners include entrepreneurs Miki Kusi from Wolt, Ilkka Paananen, chief executive of Supercell, and Jochan Enghert from Flix. Cherry Ventures has a history of successful exits, with 18 exits including CoWSwap, Ninetailed, and Homelike.<\/p>\n
While Cherry Ventures’ efforts are commendable, the question remains whether European startups can truly reach the trillion-dollar mark. Only time will tell if this VC firm’s ambitions will be met with success. European Venture Capital: A Growing Force or Still Behind the US? The notion that European venture capital (VC) lacks the firepower to compete with its US counterparts has been a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[65,849,850,851],"class_list":["post-3462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ai","tag-berlin","tag-cherry-ventures","tag-european-startups"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/02\/Cherry-Partners.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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