Since 2023, Deep Tech has attracted a record share of venture capital (VC) funding in Europe, now accounting for almost a third of all investments. The share of funding dedicated to Deep Tech has also increased by a factor of 2.5 over the past decade.
This trend is highlighted in the European Deep Tech Report 2025, produced by Dealroom in partnership with Lakestar, Walden Catalyst and Hello Tomorrow. AIN outlines key takeaways from the report.
Investment Trends
In 2023 and 2024, deep tech received 28% of all VC funding in Europe, setting a new record and signaling growing investor confidence in the sector.
Growth stage investments had their second most active year in 2024, showing a slight increase from 2023. However, early-stage funding has declined by 30% since its peak in 2021, while late-stage funding has declined by 50% over the same period. Despite these declines, growth-stage investments remain strong, indicating continued momentum for Deep Tech startups to scale their businesses.
Image: Dealroom
In 2024, Deep Tech attracted more venture capital funding than any other sector in Europe, securing $15.1 billion. This significantly outpaced investment in Healthcare/Life Sciences ($8.7 billion) and Fintech ($8.5 billion), which were the next largest sectors. Other key sectors followed, including enterprise software, energy and transportation.
International Investment in Deep Tech
Nearly half of late-stage deep tech VC funding in Europe came from non-European investors. While domestic and European sources dominate early-stage rounds, investment from the US, Asia and other global regions increases significantly in Series C and later rounds.
Top countries and hubs
- The United Kingdom led Europe in deep tech VC funding, securing $4.2 billion, a 21% increase over the previous year.
- France and Germany followed with $3 billion and $2.7 billion respectively, although France experienced a 27% decline.
- Sweden experienced the sharpest decline in Deep Tech investment (-71%), while Finland saw the strongest growth (+78%).
- The leading Deep Tech hubs in Europe remain London, Paris, Munich, Cambridge and Stockholm.
VC funds continue actively investing in Deep Tech
Image: Dealroom
A number of VCs included in the list by Dealroom features Central and Eastern European-focused funds, such as:
- Voima Ventures, a Finnish venture capital firm which recently closed its Deep Tech-focused Fund III at €100 million.
- Maki.vc, a Finnish pre-seed & seed-stage VC firm dedicated to partnering with founders who never conform to category standards. The firm also launched a €100 million Deep Tech-focused Fund III in 2024.
- Speedinvest, an Austrian early-stage VC fund. In 2024, it closed its fourth fund of €350 million to support European startups.
Segment deep dive
The report also dives into specifics of each segment of Deep Tech sector. Here are the key trends for each one:
- Novel AI, a subset of AI, referring to fundamentally new maths and algorithms. Novel AI funding more than doubled from 2023, led by LLMs and
autonomous driving. - Large Language Models — $1.5 billion have been invested in Deep Tech LLMs startups, up nearly 10 times from two years ago.
- Future of Compute — funding neared 2023’s record at $1.2 billion, driven by quantum, AI chips, brain-computer interfaces, and photonics.
- Photonics — VC funding is on the rise ($205 million in 2024), with strong activity at the early andearly growth stage.
- Novel Energy — funding picked up again in 2024 reaching $1.1 billion. Nuclear energy, fusion and SMRs, accounted for three of the top deals.
- Space Tech — funding reached a new record with nearly $1 billion invested. In-space transportation, launch vehicles and earth observation are among the top segments. Notably, ICEYE's mega rounds continued fueling space tech industry in CEE through 2024.
- Resilience — nearly doubled from 2023 ($653 million) driven by AI, defence, drones and other autonomous robotics.
- Biotech — funding rebounded in 2024, hits second best year ever ($498 million).
- Robotics — VC funding is up from last year ($701 million), but still far from historical highs in 2021-2022 ($1.1 billion).
