London, 22 January 2025: European fintech investment increased 10% in 2024 in a sign of increasing confidence for one of the continent’s leading tech sectors, according to data from Dealroom.co. Funding rose from $7.9 billion in 2023 to $8.7 billion thanks to a number of mega-rounds including Monzo ($605m), WorldRemit ($267m), Sequra ($211m) and Alan ($178). There are promising signs of a new generation with 90% of just just under 1,000 funding rounds taking place at early stage.
The increase in fintech funding comes as overall VC funding in Europe is now 4.2x the $12.6bn raised across the entire region in 2014, and unicorn creation has climbed 10x (from 59 to 579).
Hopes for 2025 are high as the continent starts the year with $31bn of dry powder – capital to invest in startups and scaling companies – the second strongest year on record for dry powder after 2022. This amounts to a record $100 billion in total over the past three years. The availability of capital and the diversification of the funding landscape are driving renewed levels of ambition amongst European founders, who now routinely found businesses intended for the global market from the heart of Europe.
Germany rises as strong contender to UK and France dominance
Previously dominant UK funding saw a notable 11% drop to $16.2 billion, creating an opportunity for other European hubs to flourish. Germany bucked the trend with a 4% increase to $8.2 billion, with Munich emerging as a strong contender, overtaking Berlin as the third-most funded city. Italy saw funding fall slightly, down 4% from 2023, however, there were more rounds in 2024 (345 compared to 324 in 2023) demonstrating that more companies in Italy are raising funding across key sectors including fintech, cyber security and healthtech.
This highlights the growing geographical spread of VC investment across Europe, with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland all seeing significant funding growth (25%, 12%, and 10% respectively), showcasing the emergence of new innovation centers. These countries are also home to some of the biggest funding rounds in 2024 including UK-based Wayve ($1.1B), Paris-based Poolside AI ($500m), Germany-based Helsing ($459m), and Netherlands-based Picnic ($362m).
| Top Countries by VC Investment | |
| 2024 | 2023 |
| UK – $16.2 billion | 1. UK – $18.9 billion |
| Germany – $8.2 billion | 2. France – $9.1 billion |
| France – $7.8 billion | 3. Germany – $7.9 billion |
| Switzerland – $3.1 billion | 4. Sweden – $4.9 billion |
| Sweden – $2.7 billion | 5. Switzerland – $2.8 billion |
| Netherlands – $2.7 billion | 6. Netherlands – $2.4 billion |
| Spain – $2 billion | 7. Spain – $2 billion |
| Belgium – $1.2 billion | 8. Denmark – $1.4 billion |
| Denmark – $1.2 billion | 9. Norway – $1.3 billion |
| Italy – $1.1 billion | 10. Italy – $1.2 billion |
Health and Enterprise Tech shine
The healthcare sector emerged as a champion, attracting $10.8 billion in investment, surpassing the previous leader, energy, which was the second-most funded sector this year ($9.4 billion). This surge reflects the exciting advancements being made in European health tech, with companies like Swiss-based EraCal Therapeutics, UK-based Flo Health (Europe’s first femtech unicorn), and Germany-based ITM Radiopharma leading the charge by tackling difficult, global challenges with tech-based solutions.
Enterprise tech also had a stellar year, with a 27% funding surge to $9.3 billion, driven by the growth of AI-powered companies. This investment fuels the development of cutting-edge solutions that will enhance European businesses. Paris-based Mistral, London-based Lighthouse and Cologne-based DeepL are prime examples of the innovation happening in this space.
Catherine Lenson, chief operating officer at Phoenix Court: “After 10 years of increasing venture capital investment in Europe, we’re seeing how the foundations of world-class talent, access to capital and supportive regulatory environment are producing a new generation of startups and scaleups including CoMind, Robeauté and Spore.bio, with the potential to become national, regional and global champions. Looking ahead to 2025, we believe that Europe will continue to build exceptional science and technology-backed companies solving real-world problems, increasingly led by second and third-time founders who understand what it takes to build a globally successful tech business.”
Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural: “European tech has had a momentous year with a number of breakthrough rounds for impactful, mission-driven companies. Examples like Helsing in Munich go after the most difficult and urgent problems like defending our democracies. Others follow in areas such as energy security, space exploration and health care. Europe’s leaders are now very alert to how creating new technology companies must be the start of thriving economies. To see GDP level impact we must ensure the best entrepreneurs can access more funding, including more later-stage capital, as well as the right talent to create globally successful companies.”
Rob Lacher, Founding Partner at Visionaries Club: “Enterprise tech investment surged in 2024 thanks to the growth of AI-powered companies, but this is just the beginning. AI is at the heart of Europe’s opportunity to bridge the productivity gap with other regions and take a leadership role in transformative sectors like manufacturing and defence. Europe is home to many global industrial market leaders with proprietary data and scale that can help to shape and enable the application layer in AI. With innovation clusters like Munich further driving this shift, we will see a new wave of AI-driven companies emerge that can reshape European and global economies.”
Diyala D’Aveni, Head of Vento and Producer of Italian Tech Week: “Italian tech continued to make strong progress in 2024, with more funding rounds overall, including more pre-seed and seed rounds, demonstrating strong momentum in the growing ecosystem. In particular healthtech and enterprise tech companies raised more this year than last year. With a new generation of founders emerging that are inspired by Europe’s success stories there is huge potential for Italian tech to grow and join Europe’s leading tech nations over the next few years.”
Imran Ghory, Managing Partner at Blossom Capital: “The diversification of European tech has long been in the making. There are thriving startups beyond major cities and 2024 has been an opportunity for those companies to come to the fore, presenting an opportunity for a more balanced European ecosystem. 2024 was the year that AI began to bring solutions to real-world problems and I’m excited for the potential to see how the technology develops in 2025.”
Diyala D’Aveni, Head of Vento and Producer of Italian Tech Week: “Italian tech continued to make strong progress in 2024, with more funding rounds overall, including more pre-seed and seed rounds, demonstrating strong momentum in the growing ecosystem. In particular healthtech and enterprise tech companies raised more this year than last year. With a new generation of founders emerging that are inspired by Europe’s success stories there is huge potential for Italian tech to grow and join Europe’s leading tech nations over the next few years.”
About Dealroom:
Dealroom.co is the foremost data provider on startups, growth companies, and tech ecosystems in Europe and around the globe. Founded in Amsterdam in 2013, Dealroom.co now works with many of the world’s most prominent investors, entrepreneurs, and government organisations to provide transparency, analysis, and insights on startups and venture capital activity. www.dealroom.co
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