U2V Launches €60M Fund To Back Europe’s Deeptech University Spin-Offs

The fund focuses on supporting teams that transform European research into commercially viable deeptech ventures strengthening the bridge between academia and industry while contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty.

Founded by Philipp Semmer, Michael Schmitt and Johannes Triebs, U2V combines scientific, technical and commercial expertise, offering capital, strategic support, industrial partnerships and hands-on operational guidance.

Together, the founding team brings more than 30 years of venture experience and a track record spanning 50+ investments and over 10 exits across funds such as Earlybird-X and Motu Ventures. Their past portfolio includes Quantum Diamonds, Greenlyte, Ncodin, Certivity, Twaice and LiveEO.

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U2V holds proprietary access to Europe’s leading technical universities and research ecosystems including TU Munich, ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen, École Polytechnique, Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, DTU Denmark and Politecnico di Milano alongside a network of more than 500 industrial partners. This enables structured go-to-market routes and early pilot opportunities for portfolio companies. Working closely with technology transfer offices and corporate innovation units, U2V aims to accelerate commercialisation and facilitate follow-on funding.

According to Dr Philipp Semmer, Founding Partner at U2V, Europe has world-class scientific output but continues to struggle to consistently translate breakthroughs into globally scaling 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 plans to use Fund I to back up to 25 pre-seed and seed-stage startups across Europe, focusing on AI and novel computing, industrial technologies and cleantech. The firm aims to build a deeptech spin-off platform that transforms university-originated technologies into commercially viable industrial solutions.

About U2V

U2V (University2Ventures) is a deeptech-focused venture fund dedicated to turning breakthrough academic research into industrial innovations. Backing Europe’s most promising university spin-offs from day one, U2V provides capital, strategic support and industry connections to help scientific teams build commercially viable, globally competitive deeptech companies.