Hilberts AI Capital Closes $80M Seed Round to Back Europe's Deep Tech Pioneers

We are proud to announce the close of Hilberts AI Capital's $80 million Seed Round — a milestone that marks the beginning of a new chapter for European deep tech investment. Backed by Speedinvest and a consortium of leading European limited partners, this fundraise positions us to back the scientists, engineers, and visionaries who are building the foundational technologies of the next generation.

Why We Raised and What We Stand For

The story of Hilberts AI Capital begins with a conviction: Europe is home to some of the world's most advanced research institutions, most rigorous scientists, and most ambitious engineers. Yet for too long, the capital available to turn that intellectual firepower into transformative companies has lagged behind what is available in the United States and East Asia. We set out to close that gap — not incrementally, but decisively.

When we began conversations with potential limited partners, the question we heard most frequently was whether Europe's deep tech ecosystem was mature enough to absorb significant seed capital. Our answer was not just yes, but that the timing was uniquely compelling. The combination of post-pandemic acceleration in digital transformation, growing European institutional appetite for technology assets, and the emergence of a generation of researchers who wanted to build companies rather than publish papers meant the moment had arrived.

The $80 million Seed Round we have closed reflects the confidence of our LP base in that thesis. Speedinvest, our anchor partner, brings not just capital but an extensive network across the European startup ecosystem and deep operational expertise that will benefit every company we back. Alongside Speedinvest, we have assembled a group of European family offices, sovereign wealth co-investors, and institutional LPs who share our belief that deep tech is the defining investment opportunity of this decade.

The Investment Strategy Behind the Fund

Hilberts AI Capital will invest at the seed stage — typically the company's first institutional round — in European deep tech companies across five core verticals: artificial intelligence and machine learning infrastructure, quantum computing and photonics, advanced materials and manufacturing, biotechnology and life sciences, and climate technology.

Our cheque sizes will range from €1 million to €5 million, with reserves for follow-on investments in our best-performing portfolio companies. We will target approximately 25 to 30 seed investments from this fund, giving us the breadth to build a diversified portfolio while maintaining the focused attention each portfolio company deserves.

We are deliberately generalist within deep tech. We believe the most transformative innovations emerge at the intersection of disciplines — when a materials scientist teams up with a machine learning engineer, or when a quantum physicist partners with an enterprise software architect. Our sector breadth allows us to spot and back these cross-disciplinary opportunities before they become obvious to more narrowly specialised funds.

Our geographic focus is pan-European, with particular emphasis on the innovation hubs of Berlin, Munich, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, and Vienna. These cities collectively house dozens of world-leading research universities and an increasingly robust ecosystem of serial entrepreneurs, experienced operators, and specialist advisors who can help early-stage companies navigate the journey from laboratory to market.

Why Speedinvest as Our Lead Partner

The decision to anchor our Seed Round with Speedinvest was not made by default. We evaluated a range of potential anchor investors and concluded that Speedinvest was uniquely positioned to add value alongside capital. Founded in Vienna in 2011, Speedinvest has grown into one of Europe's most active early-stage venture funds, with over €500 million under management and a portfolio spanning fintech, health tech, deep tech, and consumer internet.

What distinguishes Speedinvest for our purposes is their operational platform — a network of sector specialists, recruiters, corporate development professionals, and market expansion experts who work directly with portfolio companies at the earliest stages. For deep tech founders who are transitioning from academic research to commercial execution, this kind of hands-on support is not a nice-to-have. It is often the difference between a promising technology dying in a pilot programme and becoming a genuinely transformative business.

Speedinvest's presence across multiple European markets also aligns with our pan-European mandate. Their offices in Vienna, Berlin, London, Paris, and Munich give them — and by extension our portfolio companies — access to talent, customers, and co-investors across the continent's most important startup markets.

The European Deep Tech Opportunity: Why Now

The case for European deep tech is not theoretical. It is empirical, and the data supporting it has never been stronger. According to Dealroom, European deep tech investment reached $25 billion in 2021, up from $9 billion in 2017. The number of deep tech unicorns based in Europe has grown from fewer than 10 in 2015 to over 60 as of early 2022. And crucially, European deep tech companies are increasingly raising competitive rounds from global investors who previously focused almost exclusively on Silicon Valley.

Several structural factors are driving this acceleration. First, European research universities — ETH Zurich, EPFL, Technical University of Munich, Imperial College London, KTH Stockholm, and dozens of others — continue to produce world-class scientific talent at a scale that no single US institution can match. Second, European industrial companies increasingly recognise that they must engage with startups to access cutting-edge technology, creating a ready market for deep tech products. Third, European governments and the European Union have dramatically increased investment in deep tech through programmes like Horizon Europe, the European Innovation Council, and national innovation agencies.

Perhaps most importantly, the cultural barriers to entrepreneurship that once held European scientists back are eroding rapidly. The success stories of Climeworks, IQM Quantum Computers, Lilium, and dozens of other deep tech companies founded by European researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to build great companies from European universities. A new generation of scientific founders is emerging, and they need the right investors by their side from day one.

What We Look For in Founders

We have thought deeply about what makes a deep tech founder exceptional, and we have arrived at a set of qualities that we look for systematically in every investment conversation.

First and foremost, we look for what we call technical unfair advantage — a depth of scientific or engineering expertise that is genuinely difficult to replicate. This might be a novel material synthesis process, a proprietary algorithm architecture, a unique understanding of quantum error correction, or a biological mechanism that no other team has characterised. Whatever the domain, we want to see that the founding team's knowledge is a real barrier to entry, not just a head start that well-funded competitors can quickly overcome.

Second, we look for commercial instinct. The best deep tech founders we have met combine rigorous scientific thinking with an intuitive understanding of how technology creates economic value. They can explain not just how their technology works, but precisely why a specific customer would pay for it, what the buying process looks like, and what adoption barriers need to be overcome. This commercial clarity is rare among scientists, which is why we value it so highly when we find it.

Third, we look for coachability and self-awareness. Building a company requires learning faster than you fail, and the founders who do this best are those who actively seek feedback, update their models quickly, and know their own limitations well enough to hire around them.

Finally, we look for resilience. Deep tech timelines are long, paths are nonlinear, and setbacks are inevitable. The founders who build enduring companies are those who can sustain conviction through the dark periods — not through stubbornness, but through a clear-eyed belief in the validity of their scientific approach and the importance of the problem they are solving.

Our Commitment to Portfolio Companies

Hilberts AI Capital is not a passive investor. We believe that the value of a seed investor lies not in the cheque but in what comes alongside it — the introductions to customers and co-investors, the strategic advice during difficult decisions, the network of talent that can strengthen the team, and the pattern recognition that comes from having seen hundreds of companies navigate similar challenges.

Every company in our portfolio will have a dedicated partner as their primary point of contact, supported by our full team's expertise. We will meet with founding teams monthly at minimum, and far more frequently during critical junctures like product launches, fundraising processes, and key hiring decisions.

We are also building a community among our portfolio companies — a network of founders who can support each other, share knowledge, and collaborate on commercial opportunities. Deep tech is a small world, and the connections between our portfolio companies often turn out to be as valuable as our individual investments.

Looking Forward: The Road Ahead

The close of this Seed Round is a beginning, not an end. We are now actively investing and are in advanced conversations with dozens of exceptional European deep tech teams. We expect to make our first ten portfolio investments over the next twelve months, with the full portfolio taking shape over the following two years.

We are particularly excited about the pipeline we are seeing in quantum computing — where European companies like IQM and Pasqal are building credible commercial offerings — and in advanced materials, where breakthroughs in areas like solid-state batteries, self-healing polymers, and sustainable composites are creating entirely new industrial markets.

We are also watching the biotech landscape closely, particularly the convergence of machine learning and biology that is accelerating drug discovery and synthetic biology. The tools available to biotech founders today are dramatically more powerful than they were even five years ago, and we believe the next decade will see a wave of European biotech companies achieving what previously required ten years in two or three.

For founders who are building extraordinary deep tech companies in Europe, we would love to hear from you. Reach out through our contact page, or connect with our team directly. We are actively looking for our next portfolio companies, and we bring more than capital — we bring conviction, connection, and a commitment to building the deep tech companies that will define this era of European innovation.