Racyics and Cloudberry VC give European Fabless Startups a complete Path from Design to Silicon

DRESDEN, Germany and HELSINKI, Finland, August 12, 2026. — Racyics GmbH and Cloudberry VC have entered a new strategic collaboration to connect two platforms built for the same company: the European fabless semiconductor startup. Racyics brings design enablement, silicon proven flows, and access to European Chips Act funding. Cloudberry, on the other hand, provides capital and a network of industrial partners. Together they focus on covering the full distance from design concept to working silicon. 

A fabless startup in Europe spends its first years assembling capabilities and resources that may already exist somewhere. Establishing a design flow, building a simulation environment, followed by a path to a foundry, securing grant application, and raising the private co-funding that grant requires. While each of these steps is solvable on its own, the challenge lies in solving all of them in sequence, before generating first revenue, which is what makes building a chip company in Europe so difficult. Therefore, this collaboration exists to make it less so. 

What Racyics brings 

Racyics is an officially appointed Design Enablement Team (DET) within the European Chips Design Platform (EuroCDP), part of the European Chips Act. Through its makeChip platform, Racyics provides startups with silicon proven design flows, EDA tooling, PDKs, IP, and full supply chain access. As a DET, Racyics helps startups prepare technically sound EuroCDP applications and delivers hands-on design services to bring a concept to silicon. 
EuroCDP provides an initial €220 million, which member states can match to a total of €440 million. The forthcoming Chips Act 2.0 is expected to place greater emphasis on advanced chip design, though the final scope remains under discussion. 

What Cloudberry VC brings 

Cloudberry VC is Europe’s first venture capital fund dedicated to semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials. Alongside capital, Cloudberry is assembling a platform of industrial and technical partners spanning EDA and simulation, foundry access, and now, through Racyics, design enablement and EuroCDP access. A determined team can put these pieces together on its own, but it is slow and expensive work, and the platform exists to make it easier. 
EuroCDP grants require a private co-funding component. For an early-stage company, this is a circular problem: the grant is contingent on private capital, and that capital is often contingent on the technical progress the grant would fund. As a pre-seed and seed investor writing first cheques, Cloudberry can supply that component directly. 

What this means for founders 

Fabless teams working with Racyics on a EuroCDP application can be introduced to Cloudberry VC for the private co-funding component, while teams in Cloudberry’s pipeline can be introduced to Racyics for design enablement. The partnership makes each introduction routine rather than accidental, providing a clearer path to technical and financial support. In addition, the two organizations also plan to collaborate on events and community initiatives across the European semiconductor ecosystem. 

“European fabless semiconductor startups are not short of technically strong ideas, and with platforms like makeChip, guided by Racyics as a Design Enablement Team, they no longer lack a path to silicon. What still holds them back is the private co-funding to secure a EuroCDP grant before most investors are ready to invest. We can remove the technical barriers, but we cannot fill the funding gap. That is exactly why a partner like Cloudberry matters. 

Holger Eisenreich, Co-Founder & CEO, Racyics GmbH 

“A EuroCDP grant asks a company to bring a private co-investor before it has one. That is the requirement early-stage teams struggle to satisfy. We can be that co-investor. And when a team arrives with a silicon proven flow and a DET behind it, we are pricing technical ambition rather than execution risk. That changes what we are able to back.” 

Rene Kromhof, Founding Partner, Cloudberry VC 

Fabless semiconductor startups exploring EuroCDP funding, or seeking partners to move from concept to silicon, can contact either firm directly. 

Explore Racyics  IP:

• Automotive Adaptive Body Biasing Generator - GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX
• Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express PHY IP - GLOBALFOUNDRIES® 22FDX®
• Crystal Oscillator for a 32 kHz Crystal - GLOBALFOUNDRIES® 22FDX®
• ULP Clock Generator - GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX

About Racyics GmbH 

Racyics is a Germany-based IC design service company founded in 2009, with offices in Dresden, Duisburg, and Neu-Isenburg and a team of over 150 employees. Over more than fifteen years it has contributed to over 100 successful tapeouts across advanced process nodes down to 3nm and is now an officially appointed Design Enablement Team within the EuroCDP. Through its makeChip platform, Racyics provides startups and SMEs with silicon proven design flows, EDA tooling, PDKs, IP, and full supply chain access, giving early-stage teams the same technical foundation a large design house takes years to build. For more information visit racyics.de 

About Cloudberry VC 

Cloudberry VC is Europe’s first venture capital fund dedicated to semiconductors, photonics, and advanced materials. The fund invests at pre-seed and seed stage in the picks and shovels layer of the deep tech stack: the enabling technologies, materials, and instruments on which the next generation of computing depends. Cloudberry is based in Helsinki and invests across Europe. More at cloudberry.vc