Europe Posted Its Strongest Venture Funding Quarter In 4 Years As UK Gains, M&A Holds Up

All told, Europe-based startups raised $24 billion in the just-ended quarter, up around a third quarter over quarter and two-thirds higher than the $14. startups gained significant share in Q2, raising more than $10 billion. That marked the third-largest funding quarter for the U.

on record, and came in at less than $500 million below its peak quarter in 2021. European startup M&A activity also picked up in Q1 and continued that momentum in Q2, even as public-market exits stayed subdued. Table of contents Large rounds drive gains H1 2026 up 50% UK momentum builds By stage Looking ahead Methodology Glossary of funding terms Large rounds drive gains Four companies raised venture fundings of a billion dollars or more last quarter, accounting for 25% of all startup investment in the region in Q2, Crunchbase data shows.

Those billion-dollar-plus rounds were raised by an AI-centric group: Alphabet -owned AI drug developer Isomorphic Labs , which was spun out of DeepMind ; green steel production manufacturer Stegra ; Neura Robotics , which is developing robots for home and industrial applications; and Ineffable Intelligence , an AI lab founded by former DeepMind researchers. However, most of the growth in funding year over year and quarter over quarter was driven by rounds of $100 million and over. The majority of funding - 65% - went to a group of 42 companies that raised rounds of $100 million-plus.