European venture funding reached $17.6 billion in Q1 2026, Crunchbase data shows. That’s up nearly 30% year over year and marks the second consecutive quarter of growth. As was the case globally and in North America, the main driver was AI, which for the first time claimed more than 50% of Europe’s total funding for the quarter.
And as was the case in the Q4 as well, Q1 was well above the prior five quarters by funding amounts, signaling that European venture funding may be gaining momentum.
Table of contents
Still, Europe saw more capital going into fewer companies in Q1, with deal volume plummeting 40% year over year. Much of the decline was at seed stage (down 44%) and early stage (down 30%), while late-stage deal volume was in-line with the previous four quarters.
AI above 50%
Funding to Europe-based AI startups increased significantly last quarter, reaching $9.2 billion, or more than half of total venture funding to the region. That marks the sector’s highest proportion in a quarter on record.
The largest four rounds to startups based in Europe in Q1 were for AI-related companies. Data center builder Nscale, autonomous driving developer Wayve, and frontier lab for physical AI Advanced Machine Intelligence raised more than a billion each, and AI legaltech Legora’s funding totaled more than $500 million.
UK and France grew YoY
Startups from the U.K. and France raised more funding in Q1, totaling $7.4 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. Germany-based startups raised $1.9 billion, flat year over year.
France has emerged as the European leader for AI frontier labs. Last quarter, it saw Paris-based Advanced Machine Intelligence, founded by former Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, raise $1 billion in the continent’s largest seed funding round on record. The deal also marked only the second billion-dollar-plus funding deal for a European frontier lab, following Mistral AIs $2 billion round last year.
Europe by stage
In Q1, late-stage funding to Europe-based startups nearly doubled from a year ago. The largest rounds were across a variety of sectors, including AI hardware, fintech, agentic AI, productivity software, sensors, defense, e-commerce and energy.
A total of $9.2 billion was invested at late-stage across 83 deals, up 91% by amounts year over year.
Early-stage funding to the region’s startups fell from a year earlier — by around 20% — Crunchbase data shows. Early-stage investment totaled $5.3 billion in Q1 across more than 240 funding rounds. Within early-stage funding, larger Series A rounds predominated in semiconductors, energy and healthcare.
Seed funding reached $3.1 billion in Q1 across more than 790 deals. The funding total was up 50% year over year, but largely due to the $1 billion round for Advanced Machine Intelligence.
In summary
Larger rounds into critical sectors in AI drove European startup funding up in Q1. A mix of Europe- and U.S.-based investors led the largest fundings last quarter into AI infrastructure, frontier labs, autonomous systems and applications.
Overall, Europe is in-line with global trends as capital concentrates into the largest deals in sectors that are surging due to AI.
Related Crunchbase query:
Methodology
The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of April 2, 2026.
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. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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. Crunchbase 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 “Series [Letter]” 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 “venture” round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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