Last month saw 320 VC investments across Europe, with $2.9bn invested in total – marking the lowest number of investments 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 95 investments in the broader industry. AI startups secured the second spot with 67 investments, closely followed by FinTech startups (61). The top 3 lead by a significant margin before the next industry of Manufacturing, mentioned 32 times.
Regarding the investors behind those funding rounds, Bpifrance was the most active investor with 7 announced investments. Speedinvest (5), the High-Tech Gründerfonds (5), Earlybird Venture Capital (5), and Acton Capital(4) 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 May, the largest funding round was a $181 million (€160 million) Series C Round secured by Quantum Systems. The company builds AI-powered eVTOL drones for defense, security, and surveying, specializing in aerial intelligence solutions. Quantum Systems was founded in 2015 in Gilching (Germany) and raised the funds from Balderton Capital, Project A, HV Capital, Bullhound Capital, and others.
While Seed Rounds accounted for a major part of investment rounds, making up approximately 46% of the total rounds, the highest investment volume was seen in Series B Rounds, which accounted for $750 million across 16 deals.
As a second Paris-based startup, the largest Seed Round was secured by Orasio. The company, founded only in 2025, provides an AI tool designing solutions capable of detecting, alerting, and enabling action for public and private security purposes. Orasio raised $17.9 million (€16.0 million) from Global Founders Capital and expeditions fund.
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 Amsterdam and Berlin. In May, Paris and Madrid complete the top 5 European VC cities.
The most investments in May were conducted in the UK (90), followed by France (32) and Germany (31).
According to dealroom.co research, Paris is #4 in the top VC global champion locations; Cambridge and Munich take places #4 and #5 in the top global VC location density rating (based on investments, enterprise values, etc. per capita).
VC Exit Overview
In May, 30 exits took place. For the second month in a row, no IPOs took place in both April and May.
With 10 exits, FinTech companies present the largest exit industry of the month, followed by EdTech (9) and Health Care (6) companies.
Most companies exited in the UK with 14 exits, followed by 4 companies in Sweden.
- Number of Acquisition Exits
- Number of IPO Exits
PE Acquisitions Overview
May recorded 30 PE acquisitions, accounting for 9% of all VC and PE rounds. This reflects a 17% decrease in PE deals compared to May 2024, yet a 67% increase compared to last months twelve-month-low of 18.
With 10 acquisitions, the UK saw the highest number of companies acquired in May.
Companies in the FinTech, Consulting, and Manufacturing industries dominated as the top acquisition industries mentioned.
The standout deal was Brookfield Asset Management‘s €776 million acquisition of Generator Hostels, a UK-based hotel chain owner and operator.
- % of all investment rounds
- Number of PE acquisitions
*All data from CrunchBase, as of June 2, 2025.
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