Cherry is a Berlin-based, founders-first European early-stage VC investing from pre-seed to Series A. Their top three criteria are "team, team, and team" — they will meet a founding team before there is a product or revenue, looking for an anomaly (something they haven't seen before), a red thread (the ability to see the shared needs that make the anomaly feasible), and personality. Their stated benchmark for the companies they back is global impact, and they invest most heavily in European deep tech and AI-native companies attacking large, fragmented, or industrial markets.
A massive, fragmented, or fundamentally manual problem that AI is now positioned to automate — and a founder with real, earned conviction about why it matters and why they are best positioned to solve it.
“Financial compliance is everything AI promised to automate. It's repetitive, rules-based, and burns thousands of analyst hours.” — Your Last Compliance Hire (Sphinx)
“Public procurement represents one of the last major business processes that remains fundamentally manual.” — Filip Dames
“You want the investment team to get a feel for who you are as a person, why you do what you do, why it matters, and why you are the person best positioned to do this in the world.” — Sophia Bendz
Products that take end-to-end action and own the outcome — not features bolted onto a dashboard or recommendations that still leave humans doing the work.
“The product makes end-to-end decisions, not just recommendations. It runs fully autonomously without requiring humans to review every case.” — Your Last Compliance Hire (Sphinx)
“RegTech companies added AI features to dashboards, but analysts still did all the actual work.” — Filip Dames
“AI-driven simulations are unlocking possibilities we couldn't even imagine a few years ago” — Inside Our Investment in Fusion - Proxima Fusion
Markets large enough to support generational companies — often trillion-dollar global markets or multi-billion-euro European categories — with global impact as the benchmark.
“Public procurement represents 14% of Europe's GDP - a market large enough to support generational companies while remaining underserved due to clear technical barriers.” — Rebuilding How Business Engages With Procurement (Forgent)
“the total energy market approaching $10 trillion and fusion positioned to capture 20-30% of that” — Inside Our Investment in Fusion - Proxima Fusion
“We estimate the addressable European market for industrial orchestration at $10 to $15 billion” — Filip Dames
“Global impact is the benchmark.” — Cherry's commitment to Europe: an open letter to founders
At pre-seed/seed, Cherry will invest before product or revenue. By Series A they expect you to be data-driven and know your North Star metrics cold; early customer breadth (e.g. customers across many countries) is a strong proof point.
“It's great to be bold and visionary while at the same time show you are data driven. You should know your North Star metrics in your sleep.” — You raised seed — and now you want to raise a Series A
“It's never too early for us to meet a founding team. We often invest before you have the product or revenue figured out.” — Cherry Ventures. We're the active ingredient. (About)
“By the time we invested, Sphinx already had customers across more than a dozen countries.” — Filip Dames
Ambitious, resourceful, resilient founders with complementary backgrounds and strong operating, building, and technical experience. Team is the dominant criterion — Cherry will meet you before there's a product.
“Our top three criteria are team, team, and team. We are looking for founders who are ambitious, resourceful, and resilient.” — Cherry Ventures. We're the active ingredient. (About)
“We always want to back stellar teams with complementary backgrounds and strong previous experience in operating, building, and technical development embarking on new ideas.” — Filip Dames
“Something we haven't seen before, or don't see enough of.” — Cherry Ventures. We're the active ingredient. (About)
“The founding team's complementary strengths position them to capture both immediate opportunity and longer-term expansion: Erik's entrepreneurial execution, Leonard's AI research depth, and Timo's operational scaling experience.” — Filip Dames
Durable economics in an AI-agent world: own the system of record, execute the action, generate proprietary data, or drive significant outcomes — not value priced on humans operating a workflow inside the product.
“A meaningful portion of SaaS has been priced on the assumption that humans must operate workflows inside the product.” — SaaS After The Interface
“If your answer is 'we own the record / we execute the action / we generate proprietary data / we drive significant outcomes' you can ride through this shift.” — Filip Dames
“As agents collapse interfaces and workflows, durable value concentrates in systems that are authorized, executable, economically decisive, and accountable.” — Filip Dames
A defensible wedge against incumbents who only bolted AI onto existing dashboards, plus structural barriers — technical, regulatory, or industrial — that keep a market underserved.
“RegTech companies added AI features to dashboards, but analysts still did all the actual work.” — Your Last Compliance Hire (Sphinx)
“Public procurement represents 14% of Europe's GDP - a market large enough to support generational companies while remaining underserved due to clear technical barriers.” — Filip Dames
“Q.ANT's manufacturing approach democratises chip production by reducing dependency on advanced foundries (e.g. TSMC or Samsung).” — Q.ANT's Photonic Chips Are Rewiring the Future of AI
A clear inflection — a technological convergence, a new tooling wave, regulatory/geopolitical pressure, or a refresh cycle — that makes the opportunity feasible and urgent right now.
“2024 marks the beginning of a new tooling wave.” — Cherry's Investment Theses on AI
“the technological convergence of proven stellarator physics, high temperature superconducting magnets, and AI design” — Inside Our Investment in Fusion - Proxima Fusion
“As export controls tighten around advanced semiconductors, this independence becomes increasingly valuable.” — Q.ANT's Photonic Chips Are Rewiring the Future of AI
“The real value of AI lies in its ability to provide information at the right moment.” — Cherry's Investment Theses on AI
Match the raise to the fund and the opportunity — different fund sizes have different return expectations, so size the ask to the magnitude of the opportunity and be clear on how you'll scale and go to market.
“A $100m fund versus an $820m fund (like what Atomico most recently raised) will have different expectations about how big of an opportunity they are looking for.” — You raised seed — and now you want to raise a Series A
“how you'll be able to scale up your business to new markets and potentially new business areas or verticals, and how are you planning to go-to-market with it.” — Sophia Bendz
“Typically, we invest between €2 million and €7 million.” — Cherry Ventures. We're the active ingredient. (About)
“We always want to back stellar teams with complementary backgrounds and strong previous experience in operating, building, and technical development embarking on new ideas.”
“You want the investment team to get a feel for who you are as a person, why you do what you do, why it matters, and why you are the person best positioned to do this in the world.”
“It's about staying calm and being an inspiring partner for the founders and not trying to run the business for them.”