Berlin-based VC Cherry Ventures closes new €150M early-stage fund

I can finally tick this one off my “European VCs that are raising a new fund” list. Cherry Ventures, the Berlin-based VC, has raised a new €150 million early-stage fund, its second fund since coming into existence.

“Cherry Ventures II” will invest in seed and early-stage startups, with a particular focus on Berlin’s tech hub and companies in the consumer (B2C) space that have the potential to disrupt existing industries and “change the life of consumers” worldwide. In other words, despite the fund’s German target, the kinds of startups Cherry Ventures wants to invest in should be outward looking.

As with just about any VC these days, in Europe or otherwise, Cherry Ventures is talking up not only the money it can invest in each startup — which I understand will be in the €700,000 to €1.5 million range — but also the operational expertise its partners can bring.

The fund is managed and run by Filip Dames, Daniel P. Glasner and Christian Meermann, who earned their stripes at companies such as Zalando, Citydeal/Groupon and Quandoo.

Meanwhile, Cherry’s LPs include Haniel, ProSiebenSat.1, the European Investment Fund (EIF), as well as other unnamed institutional funds and a number of unnamed Internet entrepreneurs.

Other VC funds operating out of Berlin, some of which have raised new funds in recent times as venture looks to stock up before a potential LP winter, include: Project A Ventures, BlueYard Capital and Earlybird Venture Capital, as well as Rocket Internet’s GFC.