Mundi Ventures' Kembara Fund Closes €750M for Deep Tech, Climate

Spain-based Mundi Ventures has announced a significant milestone for its Kembara Fund I, securing a €750 million first close towards its ambitious €1 billion target. This new deep tech and climate megafund aims to address a critical funding gap in Europe, specifically supporting innovative startups struggling to scale beyond their Series A rounds. With a strong commitment from the European Investment Fund, Kembara is poised to become a pivotal player in fostering the next generation of European technology champions.

Addressing Europe's Funding Gap

A recent report highlighted a concerning trend: billions invested into early-stage European climate startups often fail to translate into sustained growth, with many collapsing at Series B. Kembara Fund I, Mundi Ventures' fifth and largest fund to date, emerges as a crucial initiative designed to bridge this very gap.

The €750 million first close follows a substantial €350 million commitment from the European Investment Fund in 2024, made under the European Tech Champions Initiative. While reaching this initial target in two years was challenging, according to Kembara co-founder and General Partner Yann de Vries, regulatory filings from Spain suggest the fund could ultimately extend its final closing to €1.25 billion.

Leadership and Vision

Kembara is managed by a dedicated specialist team within Mundi Ventures, with offices spanning Madrid, London, Barcelona, and Paris. Mundi Ventures founder Javier Santiso co-leads the Kembara fund as a General Partner. The fund has also unveiled its full roster of senior partners, including climate tech VC Robert Trezona and deep tech VC Pierre Festal as General Partners, alongside former Atomico partner Siraj Khaliq as a Senior Strategic Advisor.

The collective experience of Kembara's leadership team, particularly Yann de Vries, underscores the urgent need for European growth capital. De Vries, a seasoned venture capitalist who previously founded Redpoint eVentures Brazil and was a partner at Atomico, experienced firsthand the challenges faced by European scale-ups. His "traumatizing experience" at German electric aircraft startup Lilium, which ceased operations in 2024 despite raising over $1 billion and going public via a SPAC, profoundly shaped his perspective.

De Vries attributes Lilium's downfall to a lack of sufficient growth capital. This experience revealed a broader issue:

"Europe doesn’t have an innovation problem. It doesn’t have a startup problem. The problem it has is a scale-up problem."

Investment Strategy and Market Impact

Kembara's investment sweet spot will be Series B and C rounds, with initial checks ranging from €15 million to €40 million across approximately 20 companies. Crucially, the fund’s substantial size allows for significant follow-on investments, potentially up to €100 million per company, to help portfolio startups scale manufacturing and expand globally.

Learning from past challenges, Kembara plans to adopt a differentiated financing approach. De Vries emphasizes the difficulty of relying solely on equity funding for capital-intensive deep tech companies. Kembara aims to "productize non-dilutive financing" for founders, optimizing capital structures and minimizing dilution. This strategy also involves bringing in limited partners (LPs) who are not only willing to invest in the fund but also to co-invest directly in successful portfolio companies.

While Kembara's fund size is notable, the European venture capital landscape is evolving, with other large funds emerging, such as Lazard Elaia Capital (LEC) and Plural, which is reportedly raising a new fund of up to €1 billion. However, the capital-intensive nature of deep tech and climate ventures means that even large VC checks have limitations.

Geopolitical Undertones and Global Ambition

Geopolitics also plays a significant role in attracting growth capital and venture debt. De Vries anticipates strong support from European sovereign wealth funds, governments, and corporations, all keen to foster "European champions in deep tech out of Europe." This sentiment is reflected in Kembara's sector focus, which includes dual-use and defense technology to "protect European sovereignty."

De Vries asserts that Kembara isn't merely replacing capital that European companies might have sought abroad. Instead, it aims to uncover "lots of gems that are under the radar in Europe, that could be scaling into global champions, and that are not realizing their full potential." He cites Deepmind as a related example of a European innovation sold too early due to a lack of growth capital.

The urgency of keeping European companies European is evident across verticals like quantum computing, semiconductors, and spacetech, all aligning with Kembara’s investment thesis. Yet, the fund’s ultimate goal is to foster global champions that transcend national borders. Coincidentally, "Kembara" means "to wander" in Malaysian, a nod to "the humble path to excellence" and the fund's international outlook.

The fund also has tangible Malaysian connections, with Javier Santiso having served as the former CEO for Europe of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah. This global perspective will be crucial for the second close, where Kembara plans to seek "global investors, because we want to have global access to markets, but also global access to supply chain," de Vries concluded.