In 2025, 4.2 k venture capital investments were announced, with $49.6 billion of venture capital invested in Europe, marking an 9% increase in invested capital despite a 27% drop in funding rounds compared to 2024.
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 1,193 investments in the broader industry. AI startups secured the second spot with 1,106 investments, followed by FinTech startups (796).
Regarding the investors behind those funding rounds, French Bpifrance emerged as the most active VC investor in 2025, completing 86 deals. With this, Bpifrance leads ahead of CDP Venture Capital (54 deals), Y Combinator (54 deals), Kima Ventures (45 deals), and EIC (42 deals) among the top 5.
Top 10 Industries of Financed Startups
- Health Care
- AI
- FinTech
- Energy
- Manufacturing
- BioTech
- Web
- Retail
- Marketing
- Food and Beverage
Top 5 Investors with the highest number of deals
- Bpifrance
- CDP Venture Capital
- Y Combinator
- Kima Ventures
- EIC
European VC Industry Hotspots
In 2025, London led the European venture capital industry as the top hotspot, recording 680 VC investments totaling $8.9 billion. Paris ranked second, with 233 investments and a transaction volume of $4.1 billion. Berlin followed in third place, attracting 171 investments with a combined value of $2.4 billion.
The largest Round of 2025
The Malta-based Crypto startup Binance made headlines in 2025 by securing the largest funding round of the year: a $2.0 billion Venture Round in March. Backed by MGX, Binance is a blockchain ecosystem and digital asset exchange platform. Founded in 2017, the company is now the largest crypto exchange in the world.
2025 Private Equity Highlights
In 2025, 481 PE acquisitions were conducted in Europe represents a 3% increase in European PE activity when compared to the 495 acquisitions of 2024.
The PE highlight of the year was the $7.4 billion acquisition of Janus Henderson Investors, a London-based asset management company, by the Trian Fund Mangement.
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of January 6, 2026.
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