Investors Remain Unfaltering in Europe's Promising Startups: H1 2025 Highlights and Roundup

Despite experiencing a slight fall from last year’s €26.95bn, H1 2025 saw European startups attract extensive investment, amassing €23.8bn across 2,143 deals. Investors showed their audacious appetite, backing 46 megadeals of over €100m each, signalling that the year is on track to rally or even surpass the previous year’s tally of 94 megadeals.

What sets this year apart is the investor belief and acute traction towards specific sectors, namely healthtech and AI. The healthtech arena witnessed four of the largest ten rounds, driven by the escalating pressure on healthcare systems to improve cost-efficiency via prevention, a growing preference for AI-facilitated medical services from diagnosis to drug discovery, and an increasingly proactive consumer component demanding more direct control over health management.

AI-based solutions were far from dormant, integrating into a range of applications spanning data centers to battlefield technology. London-based startup Isomorphic Labs, on the back of its ground-breaking generative AI technology primarily targeted at oncology, mirrors this trend. In addition, investments flooded into Sweden’s EcoDataCenter, as it expanded to accommodate power-intensive AI workloads, reflecting the infrastructure demand created by this technology-driven shift.

The defence AI startup Helsing, with its €600m series D round, secured a valuation of €12bn, more than doubling its price tag in a single year. Spotify cofounder Daniel Ek’s firm Prima Materia led the round, alongside significant investors. Meanwhile, the AI clarity trailblazer Isomorphic Labs raised $600m, marking its first external funding endeavour. This firm is dedicated to expediting drug discovery using DeepMind’s revolutionary AlphaFold tech.

The Swedish data center firm, EcoDataCenter, also garnered €450m in funding, with a keen eye for sustainable infrastructure; it serves a variety of clients, from BMW to AI company DeepL. Another prominent deal was the €400m secured by the Germany-based Green Flexibility, intent on revolutionizing the energy transition with large-scale battery systems.

Representing another pivotal fundraising effort, London-based Verdiva Bio launched with a substantial $410m, marking Europe’s second-largest ever Series A round. This event-rich year signifies robust developments in the European startup landscape, with an evident focus on technological upgradation and healthcare betterment. As the year forges ahead, the startup sector remains poised for laudable breakthroughs with resilient investor backing, notwithstanding the slight dip in overall figures compared to the previous year.