#2027

European startups got about $17.6 billion of venture capital in the first three months of 2026. That is up 30% from last year. But the money is going to fewer companies. More than half of it went to AI. SaaS is having a hard year but is not dead. Solo founders using AI agents are a real thing now. A startup that needed 10 people in 2022 may only need 3 people plus AI in 2027. AI is both breaking old businesses and creating new ones.

European startups raised about $17.6 billion in venture capital in the first three months of 2026. That is 30% more than the same time last year. For the full year 2025, the total was $58 billion.

But there is a catch. The number of deals is going down. Q1 2026 had 40% fewer deals than the same quarter last year. Seed funding (the very first money a startup raises) dropped 44%. Early-stage funding dropped 30%. Late-stage funding stayed the same.

What does this mean? Investors are giving more money to fewer companies. The big winners are getting bigger cheques. The smaller startups are finding it much harder to raise their first round.