Investment in European tech startups is recovering after a summer slowdown, but remains unevenly distributed, according to data from tech.eu. In September, European tech funding reached €15.8bn across 300 rounds, bringing the total for 2026 to almost €60bn.
For comparison, only €3.2bn was raised in August across 165 deals. The United States attracted $50bn in the same period, alongside $800bn annually in cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence.
Of the 300 September deals, 25 companies raised more than €100m. Three rounds exceeding €1bn were secured by AI platform company Mistral and AI infrastructure company Nscale, while values were not disclosed for 34 deals. The largest September deal was achieved by French artificial intelligence company Mistral, which raised €3bn in Series D, with its post-money valuation exceeding €21bn.
Cloud computing and artificial intelligence secured the highest investment by sector. €5.541bn was invested in cloud across 44 deals, and €4.194bn in artificial intelligence. Fintech attracted €847.7m, healthtech €826.3m, space tech €725.8m, robotics €508.3m, software €421.1m, security €319.8m, telecommunications €315m, and deep tech €274.5m.
The United Kingdom remains the leading European market for fundraising. In September, it secured €7.3bn, half of the total amount for that month, through more than 65 transactions. It was followed by France with €3.478bn, Germany with €1.155bn, the Netherlands with €1.119bn, Spain with €615.8m, Portugal with €524.1m, Sweden with €399.9m, Italy with €373.1m, Bulgaria with €177.7m, and Finland with €175.8m.
More than 11,700 investors participated in September investments. French public sector investment bank Bpifrance participated in the most deals (8), while German public-private venture capital firm High-Tech Gründerfonds was second with 7 deals. Italian venture capital firm Vento and British national innovation agency Innovate UK participated in 6 deals, while British venture capital firm Balderton Capital and the European Investment Bank participated in 5 deals each.
The EU has a range of technology-focused financing instruments as it seeks to reduce dependence on large American tech companies and ensure its own technological sovereignty. In July, the European Commission launched a public-private initiative worth €10bn to support the construction of seven AI gigafactories across Europe, aiming to trigger €20bn in private financing.
The European Investment Bank leads the TechEU programme, which pools €70bn of debt and capital to mobilise €250bn by 2027 for the development of European startups from early stage to initial public offering. The European Commission has also made €8.1bn available through the Digital Europe programme to support supercomputing, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and semiconductors via the Chips Act. The Scaleup Europe Fund is a €5bn initiative managed by Swedish investment firm EQT for investing in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean technologies, and biotechnology.
