A Snapshot of Europe’s Most Active Venture Capitalists in 2025: Power Players Betting Big on Budding Startups

When it comes to fueling innovation in Europe, venture capitalists (VCs) are certainly not holding back. The year 2024 has been decisively outshone by its successor, with countless startups witnessing the benefit. Particularly, the early-stage enterprises have enjoyed the lion’s share of this largesse, especially those playing in the buzzy fields of artificial intelligence and deep technology.

Data from Sifted highlights an interesting trend, eight out of the ten most active venture capitalist institutions have noticeably increased their deal count in light of the first half of 2025. Topping the charts, UK’s SFC Capital alone is responsible for backing 62 startups. Among its stand-out investments are Paapi, an ad measurement platform which raised £420,000 in a pre-seed round, and Gryd Energy that managed to secure a cool £1 million to expand its off-grid solar panel offering for homes and businesses.

Speedinvest from Austria too has been sparking entrepreneurial dreams. In April, they co-led a $40 million Series B funding for Pliant, a Berlin-based payments platform, and led a €15 million seed round in Emmi AI, an industrial engineering AI simulation platform.

Fuel Ventures, another UK name on the list, has been bolstered by fresh LP backing in January, raising £20 million from Chinese investors. A result perhaps of Fuel Ventures’ judicious investments that include a notable bet in healthtech, among others.

Given this trend, 2025 is likely to witness more than a fair share of boundary-pushing innovation and perhaps, the emergence of Europe’s next unicorn, courtesy of these active venture capitalists. The European entrepreneurial ecosystem seems to be basking in the warmth of an unprecedented VC spring, and the fruits borne of this season promise to be abundant and future-shaping.