𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗩𝗖 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝟮𝟱% - 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?

This is about the capital raised by European funds, rather than the amount invested in companies. It makes however for an interesting backdrop to the companies' fund-raising activities.

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Worth commenting on:
👉 European VC fund-raising is 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝗰. 𝟮𝟱% to $20.5bn so far in 2025.
→ That’s about 50% of the 2022 peak, but it is also 2x as much as 2017 and 10x what the figure was 15 years ago, so not as bad as it looks.
→ Clearly European VCs suffer from a lack of exits: the lack of distributions back to LPs makes it more difficult to re-invest into new funds.
👉 The 𝗨𝗞 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 (post Brexit and all), with a reduction by more than 50% to c. $4bn
→ This is the first time in living memory that UK is not first of the bunch.
→ France now leads the charge with a 25% market share (UK: c. 20%)
👉 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 (more than half of the market): 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 and 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 (a fast-growing market – from less than 2% of European GDP to 3% or 5% depending on you count) are driving the activity.
→ As an overlay sovereignty is becoming a key theme (hence New Space) and resilience more generally (which can include pretty much anything – from energy to food but also payment systems etc).
→ There is a bit of a debate around the definition of deeptech, some analysts (like Dealroom) taking a pretty extensive view, whereas more purist investors reserve the term to IP-based companies (as measured by patents).

This of course in the context of an overall VC market still dominated by the US (and Silicon Valley in particular). What do we see?
👉 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦 𝗶𝘀 𝗰. 𝟳𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁.
→ The US market is still at least 5x the size of the European VC market, and probably much more in 2025.
→ In November alone, the US investors put $40bn to work, 2x the amount raised by European VCs in the whole year.
👉 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗲𝗴𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 $𝟱𝟬𝟬𝗺 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 are now replacing the $100m mega rounds of the past.
👉 𝗔𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁: in November (according to Crunchbase), nearly half of the $40bn raised by startups went to only 12 companies.
👉 This is of course driven by the 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝗲 which the US have embraced more wholeheartedly than Europe – foundational models, semiconductors, data centers and all.

Sources:
https://lnkd.in/esbWA_En‍
‍https://lnkd.in/eapXHBzm‍
‍https://lnkd.in/ec79viRm‍
‍https://lnkd.in/e2t8DYg3