Europe's top venture capital investors by country – CB Insights

Europe’s top venture capital investors by country – CB Insights

Written by FinTech Futures
25th September 2017

Europe is home to prominent start-up and innovation hubs like Berlin, Stockholm and London, with more tech hubs, such as Zurich and Paris, on the horizon.

CB Insights has mapped the top venture capital (VC) investors in Europe by country, based on number of portfolio companies the investor had backed. The research company analysed the most active investors in the last five years (2012-2017), including VCs, corporate VCs, growth equity firms and super angels.

The search was limited to firms with at least one investment since Q1 2016 and more than one portfolio company in the country where they were the top investor. As a result, some countries (e.g. Hungary, Croatia and Ukraine) did not make it to the map.

The country with the fewest VC investments is Slovakia, which saw just two venture rounds to two companies. Neulogy Ventures participated in both deals.

Additionally, in nearly every country on the CB Insights map the top investor into that country was locally headquartered. The two exceptions are: Imprimatur Capital in Latvia and SingulariTeam in Cyprus.

At the top of the list, High-Tech Grunderfonds has made nearly 200 deals to 150+ German companies since 2012, making it the top investor in European tech VC by a long shot. Notable recent deals include a $3.4 million seed round to POSpulse (shopper intelligence platform) and participation in a $2 million seed round to MoBerries (HR and workforce management company). Since 2012, German tech companies have seen more than 1,600 deals worth over $10 billion.

The UK has seen the highest number of deals and total funding deployed to tech companies, at more than 3,200 deals worth nearly $20 billion since 2012, according to CB Insights. VC investor LocalGlobe participated in approximately 60 rounds to 50+ UK companies over the same period, making it the most active investor in the UK. Recent investment include three rounds to fintech start-ups: a $2.6 million Series A to Cleo (artificial-intelligence powered chatbot), a $1.6 million seed round to Zego (insurtech), and a $14 million Series A to Tide (SME banking service).