Lilium's €1 Billion Lesson: How Kembara is Reshaping European Deep Tech Investment

Despite raising over $1 billion in capital and going public through a SPAC merger, German electric aircraft company Lilium faced operational shutdown in 2024. This cautionary tale underscores a fundamental challenge plaguing European innovation: even substantial funding proves insufficient without the right growth capital structure. The collapse has become a catalyst for reimagining how Europe supports its most promising deep tech ventures—a mission that Spain’s Mundi Ventures is now pursuing through its €750 million debut fund, Kembara.

When Billion-Dollar Funding Isn’t Enough: The Lilium Lesson

Lilium’s trajectory reveals a critical paradox in European venture capital. The company achieved what many startups dream of—securing over $1 billion in investment and executing a public listing. Yet these accomplishments masked a deeper structural weakness: insufficient scale-up capital to transition from development to mass manufacturing.

Yann de Vries, now co-founder and general partner of Kembara, experienced this limitation firsthand. After co-founding Redpoint eVentures Brazil and joining venture investor Atomico, de Vries moved to the operational side, joining Lilium as the company pursued manufacturing scale. The experience crystallized his understanding of Europe’s fundamental bottleneck: the continent excels at creating innovative startups but struggles to provide the capital injection needed to transform them into global competitors.

De Vries attributes Lilium’s failure not to innovation deficiency or entrepreneurial deficiency, but to a scarcity of committed growth capital—a syndrome afflicting European startups across sectors. His insight became the founding principle for Kembara.

Bridging Europe’s €750M Scale-Up Gap

Europe has poured billions into early-stage climate technology and deep tech startups, yet many of these ventures stall at Series B funding—unable to progress toward market leadership. This funding chasm represents a strategic vulnerability for European innovation.

In response, Mundi Ventures raised €350 million through the European Investment Fund under the European Tech Champions Initiative in 2024. This institutional backing enabled the firm to achieve a €750 million first close for Kembara, cementing it as the company’s fifth and most ambitious fund. According to Spanish regulatory filings, Kembara could ultimately reach €1.25 billion at its final close, representing a transformative capital pool for European deep tech.

The fund operates from four strategic hubs—Madrid, London, Barcelona, and Paris—bringing together a leadership coalition spanning climate tech investment, frontier technology expertise, and corporate strategy. Beyond de Vries, the team includes founder Javier Santiso, climate tech investor Robert Trezona, deep tech specialist Pierre Festal, and Siraj Khaliq, a veteran of Atomico now serving as senior strategic advisor.

From Startups to Scale: Kembara’s Next-Gen Investment Thesis

Kembara targets Series B and C stage companies, typically deploying €15 million to €40 million in initial investments across approximately 20 portfolio companies. Crucially, the fund’s scale enables substantial follow-on capital—potentially reaching €100 million per company to support manufacturing expansion and international market entry.

This investment structure directly addresses the Lilium problem. By committing to multi-round follow-on funding, Kembara ensures that companies don’t face the cliff experienced by many European ventures during scale-up phases. The fund’s size also allows for more patient capital, recognizing that deep tech and climate solutions often require longer development and deployment timelines than conventional software ventures.

The competitive landscape validates this approach. Investor Elaia and asset manager Lazard launched Lazard Elaia Capital (LEC), targeting €20 million to €60 million per company. Operator-led fund Plural is reportedly raising up to €1 billion for its next fund. Kembara’s €750 million first close positions it as a significant player in this evolving ecosystem, with distinct advantages in follow-on capital provision.

Beyond Equity: Non-Dilutive Financing Inspired by Lilium’s Story

Lilium’s reliance on equity financing highlighted a vulnerability that Kembara is deliberately addressing. The fund recognizes that pure equity capital, however abundant, can create unfavorable shareholder structures and future financing pressure on founders.

In response, Kembara is pioneering non-dilutive financing options—including venture debt and hybrid instruments—allowing founders to optimize capital structures and reduce dependency on equity dilution. This approach acknowledges that manufacturing-intensive ventures and climate tech projects require alternative financing beyond traditional venture equity. The strategy also encourages limited partners to co-invest alongside Kembara, creating multiple capital sources and reducing concentration risk.

Europe’s Defense Tech Bet: Kembara’s Geopolitical Dimension

Geopolitical considerations are accelerating institutional support for European-backed deep tech. Sovereign wealth funds, governments, and corporations increasingly view European growth-stage ventures as strategic assets, particularly in sectors where supply chain resilience matters.

Kembara’s investment mandate explicitly includes dual-use and defense technologies, reflecting this geopolitical calculus. De Vries emphasizes, however, that the fund’s mission extends beyond merely replacing external capital. Rather, Kembara aims to build durable European champions in quantum computing, semiconductors, and space technology—sectors where global competitiveness and domestic ownership carry strategic weight. This positioning differentiates Kembara from purely financially-motivated competitors.

Team Pedigree: From Deep Tech Trenches to Investment Leadership

Kembara’s team composition reflects the lessons learned from scaling ventures like Lilium. Javier Santiso brings operational credibility from his role as European CEO of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah—experience navigating global capital structures and international partnerships. The inclusion of Robert Trezona (climate tech investor) and Pierre Festal (deep tech expert) ensures sector-specific expertise, while Siraj Khaliq’s Atomico background brings proven late-stage venture acumen.

De Vries’ personal journey—from founder to scale-up investor to fund operator—embodies the career path increasingly necessary to understand European deep tech dynamics. His Lilium experience is not a liability but an asset, providing credibility with founders navigating similar scaling challenges.

The DeepMind Precedent: Retaining European Innovation

De Vries often cites DeepMind as an exemplar of Europe’s missed opportunity. The AI research company, founded in London, was acquired by Google for over $500 million in 2014—a figure that now appears modest given the company’s subsequent contributions to AI advancement and Google’s valuation. The acquisition illustrates how European ventures lacking sufficient growth capital face acquisition pressure from better-capitalized foreign competitors.

Kembara’s mission explicitly includes preventing DeepMind-like outcomes. By providing substantial scale-up capital domestically, the fund aims to enable European founders to reach global scale while retaining European ownership and strategic control. This goes beyond financial returns; it reflects a commitment to building a sustainable European innovation ecosystem where companies can scale independently.

Global Ambitions with European Roots

Looking ahead, Kembara plans to broaden its investor base through subsequent closings, seeking international capital commitments while maintaining European strategic focus. De Vries notes that global supply chains and market access have become inseparable from venture success—highlighting why international investor participation strengthens, rather than dilutes, Kembara’s European mission.

The fund’s name—“Kembara,” meaning “to wander” in Malaysian—reflects this international ambition paired with humility, encapsulating the team’s philosophy of “the humble path to excellence.” This positioning signals that European deep tech leadership requires both domestic commitment and global connectivity, balancing autonomy with openness to international partnerships.

Kembara represents a structural response to Europe’s long-standing capital deficit at the growth stage—one informed by witnessing scaled ventures like Lilium falter despite exceptional funding. By combining patient capital, sector expertise, and geopolitical awareness, the fund addresses the fundamental bottleneck that has historically constrained European innovation from achieving durable global impact.