In December, the volume of invested venture capital in Europe saw an 4% increase compared to December 2023, according to Crunchbase data. The total of invested volume reached $3.0 billion, spread across 333 funding rounds.
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 AI startups lead the market with a total of 92 investments in the broader industry. Health Care startups secured the second spot with 89 investments, closely followed by FinTech startups (84).
Regarding the investors behind those funding rounds, French Bpifranceagain emerged as the most active VC investor, completing 8 deals. With this, Bpifrance leads ahead of Y Combinator (6 deals), Eurazeo (4 deals), Atlantic Bridge (4 deals), and Seventure Partners (4 deals) among the top 5.
Top 10 Industries of Financed Startups
- AI
- Health Care
- FinTech
- Energy
- BioTech
- Manufacturing
- Web
- Consulting
- Marketing
- Food and Beverage
Top 5 Investors with the highest number of deals
- Bpifrance
- Y Combinator
- Eurazeo
- Atlantic Bridge
- Seventure Partners
Notable funding rounds across Europe
In December, the largest funding round was a $156.5 million (€150 million) Venture Round secured by 1Komma5°, a German renewable energy provider for households and businesses, with innovative technologies and a streamlined energy platform. The company was founded in 2021 in Hamburg.
While Seed Rounds accounted for a major part of investment rounds, making up approximately 34% of the total rounds, the highest investment volume was seen in Venture Rounds, which accounted for $870.9 million across 84 deals.
The largest Seed Round was secured by Orakl Oncology, which raised $11.5 million. Founded in Villejuif, France, in 2023, the precision oncology company combines data and biology to bring new drugs to cancer patients.
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 once again remains the hotspot of the European VC industry in December, with Paris securing the second spot.
During December, the UK led the way with the most investment rounds at 94, followed by France with 40. Germany takes the third spot with only 33 investments.
When ranking the cities by investment volume rather than the number of investments, Hamburg ($156.5 million) takes fifth place.
PE Acquisitions Overview
Private Equity (PE) continues its uptrend against the previous year with December acquisitions increasing by 77% to 46, compared to December 2023. Of those 46 acquisitions, 12 included companies based in the UK, with 10 acquisitions making Manufacturing the top PE industry.
The Private Equity share as part of the total 379 investment rounds in December (VC + PE) almost tripled compared to the same time last year, reaching 11% .
The largest known acquisition was General Atlantic’s acquisition of Learning Technologies Group, a UK-based E-learning provider for organizations, for £802.4 million ($985mn).
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of January 7, 2025.
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