European venture capital sees record billion-dollar deals amid funding squeeze

European venture capital activity shows a diverging trend between massive individual deals and early-stage accessibility. In the first half of 2026, over $51 billion in venture capital flowed into Europe, with a record six companies securing at least $1 billion in funding during the first quarter alone.

Major transactions included $2 billion for the British AI firm Nscale, $1.8 billion for Germany’s Neura Robotics, and $1.5 billion for the UK’s Wayve. Other significant rounds involved Germany’s Cloover, France’s Advanced Machine Intelligence, and the UK’s Kraken Technologies.

Despite these record-breaking billion-dollar rounds, the Antler European Founder Report 2026 highlights a narrowing of growth capital for many startups. While startup creation rose 54 percent between 2021 and 2025, seed rounds dropped by 41 percent and Series A rounds fell by 45 percent during the same period.

The market is increasingly characterized by two types of high-value companies: lean, AI-driven “Jets” that grow rapidly in revenue, and capital-intensive “Juggernauts” focused on defense, energy, and AI infrastructure, such as Munich-based Helsing and Proxima Fusion.