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This press release is under embargo and may not be published, broadcast, or shared in any form until April 23, 2025, 7 A.M.

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• Fund II is nearly 10x larger than the 2018 debut, enabling more support for technical founders building foundational compute and AI infrastructure.
• The team brings deep technical and research experience across semiconductors, edge, HPC, and AI — from KIT, Max Planck, ETH, MIT, LMU, and compute-focused startups.
• First Momentum is backing the full-stack innovation wave — from chip to compiler — and aims to build European compute champions from day zero.

Germany – April 23, 2025 — First Momentum Ventures today announces the close of its oversubscribed €35 million Fund II, with a focused mission: backing deeply technical founders building Europe’s next-generation compute infrastructure, AI systems, and semiconductor innovation.

At nearly 10x the size of its 2018 debut, Fund II enables First Momentum to support founders at the pre-seed stage with initial investments between €200k and €1M — often before the company is incorporated.

“Modern AI and data workloads are pushing the limits of our current compute infrastructure. We’re entering a new era where full-stack innovation — from chip to compiler — is back on the table. In addition, semiconductor manufacturing is reaching the limits of Moore’s law and, at the same time, becoming a matter of strategic importance. Whether it’s new compute architectures, semiconductor tooling, or edge-native infrastructure, this is one of the few categories where technical edge truly compounds. European research is excellent in these areas, and we see this as a tremendous opportunity to build European champions.”

— Dr. Maximilian Ochs, VC at First Momentum Ventures

🧠 Backing the Foundations of the AI Era

The rise of GenAI, distributed workloads, and data-hungry systems has created an urgent need for foundational innovation in compute, from hardware accelerators to full-stack optimization.

First Momentum is focused on identifying and backing early-stage teams working at the bleeding edge of these systems, often before others understand their market.

The team combines engineering and operating experience from MIT, KIT, Max Planck, LMU, ETH, and compute-native startups — and has invested in nearly 50 companies to date, with follow-on capital from leading global VCs including Khosla Ventures and Insight Partners.

💎 23 first investments from the new fund

💎 Portfolio value exceeds €1 billion

💎 LP base includes exited deep tech founders, domain experts, and strategic institutional backers

🔍 What Fund II Backs in Compute

First Momentum is actively investing in early-stage innovation across:

• New compute architectures and heterogeneous systems
• Semiconductor tooling, packaging, and design automation
• Edge-native compute infrastructure for distributed AI and real-time inference