In 2024, 5.7k venture capital investments were announced, with $45.3 billion of venture capital invested in Europe, marking an 3% increase in invested capital despite a 14% drop in funding rounds compared to 2023.
Number and volume of announced funding rounds over the past 12 months*
- Number of funding rounds
- Invested volume in $bn
Leader Industries and Investors
According to the number of conducted investments, the Health Care startups lead the market with a total of 1,474 investments in the broader industry. AI startups secured the second spot with 1,329 investments, followed by FinTech startups (1,146).
Regarding the investors behind those funding rounds, French Bpifrance emerged as the most active VC investor in 2024, completing 126 deals. With this, Bpifrance leads ahead of Antler (102 deals), SFC Capital (99 deals), EIC Accelerator (73 deals), and HTGF (66 deals) among the top 5.
Top 10 Industries of Financed Startups
- Health Care
- AI
- FinTech
- Energy
- BioTech
- Web
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Marketing
- Food and Beverage
Top 5 Investors with the highest number of deals
- Bpifrance
- Antler
- SFC Capital
- EIC Accelerator
- HTGF
European VC Industry Hotspots
In 2024, London led the European venture capital industry as the top hotspot, recording 1,084 VC investments totaling $8.9 billion. Paris ranked second, with 438 investments – just over half of London’s total – and a transaction volume of $4.1 billion. Berlin followed in third place, attracting 312 investments with a combined value of $2.4 billion.
The largest Round of 2024
The London-based AI startup Wayve made headlines in 2024 by securing the largest funding round of the year: a $1.05 billion Series C in May. Backed by prominent investors such as SoftBank, NVIDIA, and Microsoft, Wayve specializes in embodied AI technology for autonomous driving. Founded in 2017, the company is at the forefront of innovation in the mobility sector.
2024 Private Equity Highlights
In 2024, 495 PE acquisitions were conducted in Europe represents a 39% increase in European PE activity when compared to the 357 acquisitions of 2023.
The PE highlight of the year was the €6.7 billion acquisition of Techem, a German energy service provider for the real estate sector, by the TPG Rise Climate Fund, TPG’s dedicated climate investing platform.
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of January 24, 2025.
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