European companies raised $67 billion of venture capital in 2026 through 7 October, according to Dealroom data presented on 8 October at Wave by Vento in Turin. At that pace the year would end at about $88 billion, a figure Dealroom describes as an estimate rather than a forecast. That would be roughly level with 2022, when Dealroom counted $89 billion, and below the 2021 peak of $110 billion.

The growth is coming from large rounds. Rounds of $100 million or more account for $41 billion of the year-to-date total, already above the $27 billion raised in such rounds across all of 2025, Dealroom's figures show.

The gap is in the largest rounds

Dealroom's chart set shows where Europe falls behind. Averaged over each year since 2015, European companies raised $18 billion in rounds of $100 million or more, against $82 billion for US companies. “What holds it back is money for the largest rounds, where US companies raise more than four times as much,” the page states. In smaller rounds the gap is narrower: $10 billion in Europe against $13 billion in the US for rounds up to $15 million, and $16 billion against $47 billion for rounds between $15 million and $100 million.

Dealroom also tracks who writes the cheques. In Europe's rounds of $100 million or more, 58% of the money comes from investors outside Europe, according to the page, based on a 2020-2025 average: about $8 billion a year from European investors, $7 billion from US investors and $3 billion from other non-European investors.

Companies and exits are scaling anyway

Dealroom counts 53 European companies valued at $10 billion or more as of September. First-time exits of European venture-backed companies are worth $65 billion in 2026 through 31 July, across 27 exits, more than 2024 and 2025 combined, it says. The largest are the listing of Italy's Bending Spoons at $18 billion, the listing of UK-based Quantinuum at $16 billion, and the acquisitions of Hugging Face, which Dealroom attributes to France, at $13 billion and Sweden's Fin at $3.6 billion.

Dealroom's reading is that Europe produces valuable companies but that its largest rounds depend on outside capital. The European Central Bank reached a related conclusion in its 2026 review of the euro area's financial structure, saying that “the scale-up investments required exceed the amounts individual VC funds in Europe can provide.”

Sources and notes. Figures are from Dealroom's European Tech Update chart set, presented on 8 October 2026; venture data run to 7 October, exit data to 31 July, and the $10 billion count is from September. The 2026 full-year figure is a pace estimate. Dealroom's own chart components imply about 56% non-European money in rounds of $100 million or more ($10 billion of $18 billion), slightly below the 58% it states, and its yearly series for such rounds averages about $19.6 billion for 2015-2025 against the $18 billion in its round-size comparison, which may draw on different datasets. The ECB quote is from its Financial Integration and Structure in the Euro Area 2026 report. Thumbnail photo: “Halle Freyssinet, Paris 13e” by Celette via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; cropped. The building houses the Station F startup campus. Illustrative photo; it does not depict the funding described.