Last month saw 367 VC investments across Europe, with $2.8bn invested in total – both marking the second lowest figures in the last 12 months!
Number and volume of announced funding rounds over the past 12 months*
- Number of funding rounds
- Invested volume in $bn
Leading Industries and Investors
According to the number of industry mentions, Health Care startups again lead the market with a total of 111 investments in the broader industry. AI startups secured the second spot with 109 investments, closely followed by FinTech startups (103). The top 3 lead by a significant margin before the next industry of Food and Beverage, mentioned 32 times.
Regarding the investors behind those funding rounds, EIC Accelerator together with CDP Venture Capital were the most active investors with 7 announced investments each. Fuel Ventures (6), Kima Ventures (5) and Bpifrance (5) close out the top 5 most active investors.
Top 10 Industries of Financed Startups
- Health Care
- AI
- FinTech
- Food and Beverage
- Manufacturing
- Energy
- BioTech
- Web
- Marketing
- PropTech
Top 5 Investors with the highest number of deals
- EIC Accelerator
- CDP Venture Capital
- Fuel Ventures
- Kima Ventures
- Bpifrance
Notable funding rounds across Europe
In April, the largest funding round was a $200 million Venture Round secured by CMR Surgical, specializing in the development and manufacturing of robotic surgical systems designed to enhance precision and efficiency in minimally invasive surgery. The company was founded in 2014 in Cambridge (UK).
While Seed Rounds accounted for a major part of investment rounds, making up approximately 41% of the total rounds, the highest investment volume was seen in Venture Rounds, which accounted for $945 million across 77 deals.
The largest Seed Round was secured by Poolhouse. The entertainment startup, founded by the founders of Topgolf in 2024 in London (UK), raised $34 million.
Number and total volume of financing rounds per stage
- Number of funding rounds per stage
- Volume of financing rounds per stage in $mn
Detailed overview by stage
European VC Industry Hotspots
When ranking by the number of conducted investments, London continues to remain the hotspot of the European VC industry, followed by Paris and Berlin. In April, Amsterdam and Munich join the top 5 European VC cities.
The most investments in April were conducted in the UK (115), followed by France (45) and Germany (43).
According to research and news articles, Paris established itself as one of the top 3 AI cities worldwide regarding funding (following Silicon Valley and Beijing) and thus as the AI funding hotspot in Europe.
VC Exit Overview
In April, 40 exits took place. Following 2 IPO exits in March, no European startups exited via IPO in April.
With 13 exits, AI companies present the largest exit industry of the month, followed by FinTech (11) and Marketing (6) companies.
Most companies exited in the UK with 15 exits, followed by 7 companies in Spain.
.
- Number of Acquisition Exits
- Number of IPO Exits
PE Acquisitions Overview
April recorded 17 PE acquisitions, accounting for 4% of all VC and PE rounds. This reflects a 63% decrease in PE deals compared to April 2024 and a new lowest number in 12 months.
With 4 acquisitions, the UK saw the highest number of companies acquired in April.
Companies in the Health Care, Retail and Energy industries dominated as the top acquisition targets.
The standout deal was KKR’s €3.1bn acquisition of OSTTRA, a UK-based FinTech company specializing in post-trade solutions.
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of May 13, 2025.
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