In December 2025, Helsinki-based Cloudberry announced securing a €30 million fund aimed at supporting semiconductor and photonics startups in Europe. This is a notable milestone for tech development in the region, paving the way for startups in compute, connectivity, sensing, and power technologies. As someone who has bootstrapped businesses and supports female entrepreneurs through "gamepreneurship," I see this initiative as a major opportunity to align diverse strategies with Europe's tech ecosystem needs.
Why This Fund Matters to Europeans, Especially Women Entrepreneurs
Many of us, particularly women, face barriers when accessing capital for deep-tech ventures. Bootstrapping or seeking equity-free funding isn’t always enough, especially when tackling hardware innovations. For women in tech, who often struggle to bridge gaps between funding access and innovation pipelines, Cloudberry's fund represents a chance to recalibrate opportunities. With hardware’s rising necessity for AI, autonomous systems, and next-gen connectivity, this focus on semiconductors and photonics is both timely and essential.
The Backbone of Europe’s Semiconductor Urgency
We’re hearing more about Europe’s semiconductor push, thanks to the global chip shortage. Several reports highlight risks tied to dependency on imported tech from Asia and North America, making industrial self-sufficiency paramount. If you’ve ever sprinted through startups reliant on agile tools, you’ll understand why this shared mission matters: you can’t build transformative solutions without reliable access to chips, and I use scalable game mechanics as a framework for illustrating why grassroots solutions matter.
The dominance of male-focused VC networks in tech persists, but female entrepreneurs like us can challenge this equation. Programs like this fund could finally open the gates for women-led ventures in semiconductors, photonics, or materials science. This builds resilience into broader, inclusive systems.
Highlights About the Fund
Here are some direct insights into Cloudberry’s ambitions:
- Focus: Pre-seed and seed-stage startups working on advanced materials and photonics-backed hardware applicable to qualitative sensing or compute applications.
- Backers: Public-private partners include GlobalFoundries and Radiant Opto-Electronics, a blend of silicon manufacturing and photonics producers supporting local and scaling projects.
- Scope of Check Sizes: €400,000, €1 million per company.
- Portfolio Goals: 20, 30 startups over a few years.
The strategic insight here isn’t just the size of the fund, it’s in the opportunity to link raw innovation with industry-leading manufacturing footprints provided by industrial LPs.
Learning from Professional Lessons
As a bootstrapped serial entrepreneur, centered on neuroplasticity-informed methods married with artificial intelligence, I’ve been closely observing several traps founders fall into. For women in engineering or niche sciences hoping to leverage funds like this one, here are common pitfalls and actionable ways forward:
Mistakes to Avoid
- Poor matchmaking in partnerships: Ensure potential co-founders are grounded in either manufacturing niches or research-based domains aligned with compute/sensing trends.
- Tunnel vision on technology: Instead of hyper-focusing on product features, build value tangibly tethered to European supply gaps.
- Neglecting ecosystem mapping: Learn how funds strategically serve Europe's policy mandates, from sustainability to energy strengthening.
Lessons to Learn
- Build endurance outside compartmentalized cycles: For instance, avoid tempting corporates to fast-buy prototypes, ensuring resilience means fostering recurring production pipelines.
- Seek initial roadmaps tying partnerships into broader ecosystem co-launch models, borrowing directly where platforms like CAD modeling or manufacturing IP alignment show collaboration potential.
- Broaden advocacy for women inside semiconductor processes: If labs hire engineers without tracker systems built for female PIs, offer alternative formats through Research Institutes backing catalysts inside academia-to-industry scale-ups.
Why Europe’s Founders Should Pay Attention
Many of us know Atomico, Lifeline Ventures, or PhotonVentures for cross-sector investment. These options target founders across early-mid stages, but funds laser-focused specifically on Europe’s semiconductor gaps widen opportunities for smaller studios.
For instance, if your sector veers across edge computing or modular sensors driving 6G speeds, mapping earlier-stage female co-building experiences benefits directly via both workshops and real industrial output workshops aligning VC hands-off behavior tricks against shareholder-progress overlaps.
Suggestions on Crafting Fund-Ready Startup Proposals
Guide Preview: Shortcut for Non-Binary Entrepreneurs Amid Semiconductor Jargon
- Simplify technical edges but verify precision language around multi-axis factory standard scaling tech
- Study LP industrial symmetry where pitch decks highlight grant-layered micro-funding efficiencies
- Engage diverse stakeholder meetups avoiding template-heavy approaches skimming depth feedback.
If you need working orientations directly tweaking how stand-alone circuits merge enterprise-scale potential forecasts into blend practicalities, that balancing act remains potent anytime lives execute hardware industrial distributors pre-competitive optimization trim-reclaimed workflows/pipelines necessary government-focused enabling react-stage bryoplank startups react-start non-stretch forcing pressure silence-tax solid startup boundary momentum breakouts guiding technical-symmetry overlaps responding pre-tax vague standard reinforcements Europe wish-level leveraging translational bottleneck overserves rather-needed self-growth-barriers innovation layer-reintegration-widen fixed-planatoms-like developer resets reduction glitch.
FAQ
1. What is Cloudberry’s €30M fund aimed at?
Cloudberry’s €30M fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials, targeting technologies related to compute, connectivity, sensing, and power. Explore Cloudberry’s fund purpose
2. Who are the main backers of Cloudberry’s fund?
The fund is supported by public-private partners including GlobalFoundries and Radiant Opto-Electronics, both leaders in silicon manufacturing and photonics systems. Learn more about Cloudberry’s backers
3. How many startups will the fund support?
Cloudberry plans to target 20, 30 startups in the next few years, focusing on early-stage companies in Europe. Discover Cloudberry’s investment scope
4. What is the typical investment size per startup?
The investment size ranges between €400,000 and €1 million per startup. Learn about Cloudberry’s investment strategy
5. Why is Europe focusing on semiconductors and photonics?
Europe is pursuing semiconductor and photonics development to reduce dependency on imports and build self-sufficiency. This is crucial amidst rising demand for AI, autonomous vehicles, and next-gen connectivity. Understand Europe’s semiconductor urgency
6. How does Cloudberry differ from other VC funds?
Cloudberry specializes in deep-tech hardware and materials science and offers access to factory floors and industrial insights not typically available in generalist funds. Read more on Cloudberry’s unique positioning
7. Who are the founders of Cloudberry VC?
Cloudberry’s leadership includes René Kromhof (optical sensors specialist), Veera Pietikäinen (deeptech finance expert), and Lawrence Lundy-Bryan (photonic memory advocate). Discover Cloudberry’s leadership
8. What is the role of female entrepreneurs in this fund?
Cloudberry’s fund opens up opportunities for women-led ventures in semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials, areas traditionally underrepresented by women. Understand the fund’s impact on women entrepreneurs
9. What industries will benefit most from Cloudberry’s investments?
Industries such as AI, cloud computing, autonomous systems, and telecommunications will benefit from the fund’s focus on advanced semiconductors and photonics. Explore strategic beneficiaries of the fund
10. What should startups include in their proposals for this fund?
Startups should highlight their technology’s alignment with industrial supply gaps, precision language regarding scaling, and showcase partnerships with research or manufacturing stakeholders. Learn tips for crafting fund-ready proposals
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
