Last month saw 299 VC investments across Europe, with $4.2 billion invested in total – a 7% decrease in funding volume compared to December.
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 conducted investments, AI leads with 97 rounds, followed by Health Care with 82 and FinTech with 50, each ahead by a significant margin of the next industry, Energy (37).
HTGF and Bpifrance were the most active investors in January with 7 announced investments each. Followed by Octopus Ventures with 5 investments and LocalGlobe and British Business Bank with 4 investments each rounding out the top five most active investors.
Top 10 Industries of Financed Startups
- AI
- Health Care
- FinTech
- Energy
- Manufacturing
- BioTech
- Web
- Retail
- Food and Beverage
- Transportation
Top 5 Investors with the highest number of deals
- HTGF
- Bpifrance
- Octopus Ventures
- LocalGlobe
- British Business Bank
Notable funding rounds across Europe
In January, the largest funding round was a $414 million Venture Round by Klöckner Pentaplast, a Montabaur-based manufacturer of plastic films and packaging for food, pharmaceutical, health, and durable products. Founded in 1965 in Germany, Klöckner Pentaplast raised the investment mainly to to stabilize ongoing business operations.
While Seed Rounds made up the largest share of rounds (39%), the highest investment volume was in Series D Rounds, which accounted for $1.04 billion across 6 deals.
The largest Seed Round was secured by Enodia Therapeutics, a Paris-based company which provides transforming treatments for cancer, inflammation, and viral infection diseases. Founded in 2025 in France, Enodia Therapeutics raised $24 million (€20 million) in January.
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
In January, London remained the leading hotspot for European VC by number of investments (49), followed by Paris (16), Berlin (10), Madrid (7) and Dublin (7).
The most investments by country were in the UK (88), followed by Germany (43) and France (29).
When ranked by investment volume rather than the number of investments, Amsterdam ($330mn) with 5 investments and Zurich ($239mn) with 2 investments join London, Berlin and Paris in the top 5 cities.
VC Exit Overview
In January, 38 exits took place. Contrary to December, there was no IPO this month.
With 14 exits, FinTech companies were the largest exit industrie, followed by Health Care (11) and AI (7) companies.
Most companies exited in the United Kingdom with 9 exits, followed by 7 companies in France.
- Number of Acquisition Exits
- Number of IPO Exits
PE Acquisitions Overview
In January, 43 PE acquisitions (13% of all VC and PE investment rounds) were conducted, an increase of 1pp compared to last month.
With 16 acquisitions, the UK saw the highest number of companies acquired in January.
FinTech (12), Manufacturing (10) and Retail and Health Care (6 each) were the top acquisition industries mentioned.
The standout deal was the Carlyle Groups $19 billion acquisition of Lukoil International, a company providing the international business of the Russian energy cooperation specialized in the exploration and production of oil.
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of February 2, 2026.
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