Europe’s Startup Funding Stabilized In 2024, But Remains Far Off Market Peak
Funding to Europe-based startups settled year over year in 2024. Funding reached $51 billion, down by 5% year over year from $54 billion invested in 2023, Crunchbase data shows.
Europe’s startups raised 16% of total global venture capital in 2024, down slightly from 18% in the prior two years. (Although it’s good to keep in mind that some European startups move their headquarters to the U.S. but retain large teams in Europe, which skews the funding numbers in favor of the U.S., with funding counts based on where a company is based.)
Funding stabilized in Europe in 2024 but is still less than half — 44% — of the market peak of $117 billion in 2021. Late-stage funding has plummeted the most since the continent’s funding heyday.
While funding was flat year over year, it was above pre-pandemic funding levels, including 2020.
UK, France and Germany lead
The leading country in Europe, the U.K., represented around a third of funding to Europe’s startups in 2024, with U.K.-based startups raising around $17 billion of the total funding.
France raised $7.9 billion and Germany came in a close third with $7.6 billion. Each represented about 15% of funding to the continent. Switzerland was the fourth-largest European country with $2.8 billion invested in its startups last year.
Healthcare, financial services and AI led
The leading sector for investment to Europe’s startups was healthcare/biotechnology, with more than $11 billion invested. Leading companies by investments were Germany-based biotech holding company Isotopen Technologien München, London-based women’s health startup Flo Health, and Finland-based sleep and health tracking platform Oura.
Financial services was the second-largest sector with $9.6 billion in funding. The largest rounds in this sector went to London-based lending firm Abound, Barcelona-based e-commerce payment company SeQura, London-based digital bank Monzo, and London-based cross border payment company Zepz.
AI was the third-largest sector for funding to Europe startups at $8.8 billion — around 9% of global AI funding. The largest rounds were raised by London-based autonomous driving startup Wayve, Paris-based foundation model company Mistral AI, Berlin-based AI defense company Helsing, and AI translation company Cologne-based DeepL. (Poolside, now based in the U.S. but previously headquartered in Paris, raised a $500 million round in 2024.)
Q4 ends year on strong note
Funding to Europe startups in Q4 reached $12 billion, up 13% quarter over quarter and flat year over year.
Late stage
Late-stage funding in Q4 reached $5.2 billion across 100 deals, up 25% by amounts year over year.
Early stage
Early-stage funding reached $5.1 billion in Q4 across nearly 300 funding rounds, down 7% year over year.
Read the full article: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/europe-startup-funding-eoy-2024/
