SA国际传媒

鈥檚 long-awaited IPO provided a standout moment for Europe鈥檚 venture ecosystem in Q3, but the more noteworthy signal may be what鈥檚 happening earlier in the funding pipeline.

While late-stage startup investment in Europe remains relatively muted, early-stage funding has quietly become Europe鈥檚 engine of resilience 鈥� helping sustain overall funding levels even as global capital continues to concentrate around massive AI rounds in the U.S., SA国际传媒 data shows.

All told, European startups pulled in $13.1 billion across more than 1,000 deals last quarter, flat quarter over quarter but up 22% year over year, per SA国际传媒 data. Early-stage investment accounted for roughly 60% of that total, buoyed by strong activity in deep tech, biotech and AI applications.

This contrasts with North America, which has seen a surge of megarounds of $500 million or more, largely into AI-related companies, over the past four quarters. North American companies raised 68% of global funding in Q3, up 10 percentage points from a year ago, with two-thirds invested in later-stage financings.

Table of contents

• Klarna debuts and strong M&A
• AI stepped up
• Late stage
• Early stage up
• Seed
• Robust early stage
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Klarna debuts and strong M&A

Sweden-based Klarna went public on the in Q3 at a value of $15.1 billion, marking the completion of one of the most-anticipated European debuts in recent years. Still, while Klarna鈥檚 listing price was well above its most recent private valuation at $6.7 billion in 2022, it was still far below its 2021 valuation of $45.5 billion.

Five European companies were also acquired for close to or more than a billion dollars each last quarter, including Sweden-based enterprise knowledge platform , which was purchased by , and Germany-based conversational AI platform , acquired by . Other billion-dollar startup exits out of Europe last quarter were in healthcare 鈥� and 鈥� and , in asset management.

AI stepped up

Close to 40% of European funding was invested in AI-related startups last quarter, totaling $5.2 billion, per SA国际传媒 data. That was up from $2 billion in Q3 2024.

The large fundraisers in the space were Paris-based frontier model company , which raised $2 billion, and London-based , a 1-year-old data center and cloud provider that raised $1.1 billion. (Within a week in early October, Nscale raised another $433 million from , and , among others.)

Other large rounds in AI last quarter were raised by Sweden-based vibe coding startup , London-based accounts payable company , and Switzerland drone and robotics operations platform .

Late stage

Around $5.4 billion was invested last quarter across 75 deals into Europe startups at growth stage, per SA国际传媒 data. That represents around 9% of global late-stage venture funding, the smallest proportion compared to other funding stages. The

Other late-stage fundings went to London-based smartphone and device maker , Netherlands-based website design , and Italy-based embedded device security platform .

Early stage up

Early-stage funding in Q3 was up year over year by 31%, with $6.1 billion invested across more than 257 funding rounds. European funding represented 20% of global early-stage funding.

Early-stage rounds also went to Finland-based , Belgium-based , and U.K.-based material science company .

Seed

European seed funding totaled $1.7 billion in Q3 across 745 seed rounds, representing 18% of global seed funding.

Large seed rounds were raised in energy, AI, biotech, fintech, autonomous driving and robotics, among other sectors.

Robust early stage

Early-stage funding to European startups picked up in Q3 with large rounds in deeptech, biotech and AI applications across many European cities.

Europe鈥檚 early-stage funding represents around 20% of global venture funding, while funding lags at the later stages, coming in at 9% of global funding.

So while Europe’s startups haven’t produced the splashy growth figures of their North American counterparts, the region has now delivered several sequential quarters of steady funding, not to mention resilient early-stage investment and strong exits in Q3. In fact, four of the nine companies acquired globally for more than $1 billion last quarter hail from Europe. As Europe and the U.S. come closer together, with many European founders launching in the U.S. market earlier, the question is: Will Europe continue to create those standout $10 billion-plus companies as it did most recently with Klarna?

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from SA国际传媒, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Oct. 6, 2025.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. SA国际传媒 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to SA国际传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. SA国际传媒 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. SA国际传媒 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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