The state of European deep tech

European deep tech runs through Germany.

Germany alone is home to roughly 3 in 10 companies on Deeplist, followed by the UK and France. Together the top three account for nearly 6 in 10 companies.

The long tail is real, though: around 30 countries are represented, and smaller ecosystems like Finland, Estonia and Ukraine punch well above their population. Munich, Berlin, London and Paris anchor the map, but much of the activity happens far from the usual hubs.

Defense and dual-use dominate, and almost everything runs on AI.

AI shows up in about 70% of companies, and dual-use and defense follow close behind. Autonomy, ISR and drones as refinement of defense form the next tier - a sign of how strongly the war in Ukraine has shaped where founders and capital go in pursuing European rearmament with technologies which a smaller company can build.

Quantum, materials, energy and bio remain comparatively small slices by company count, though they include some of the most capital-intensive bets on the list.

Munich has become the capital of European defense tech money.

Defense tech is now spread across 25 European countries, but the money is not. German defense startups have raised more in 2026 than the next several countries combined, anchored by some very large rounds for companies like Helsing and Quantum Systems. Munich is the densest cluster in Europe as a result, followed by London. Then come Tallinn and Kyiv, frontline (or high conflict potential area) ecosystems that punch far above their size.

While the money raised does track defense budgets, it's only part of the picture. France has Europe's third-largest defense budget, yet sees a fraction of Germany's venture funding, while smaller countries like Portugal, Finland and Bulgaria landed outsized single rounds.

Defense spending through outlier rounds sets the size of the market. Where startups get funded depends on procurement speed and openness to young companies, providing security through procurement contracts and local investor appetite, often aided by government venture or grant funding.

A strong upward trend in company founding in the last decade.

Close to half of the companies on Deeplist started between 2021 and 2024, the busiest stretch on record at 24 to 35 new companies a year, with a Covid-era surge in 2023 as the peak.

The surge lines up with the war in Ukraine, rising European defense budgets and a new wave of specialist investors with large pools of capital to deploy. 2025 and 2026 look thinner because young companies often operate in stealth mode and don't announce early rounds, not because founding has slowed.

Two billion-dollar seed rounds, and six later-stage rounds above $1B.

Seed is no longer always small. Two seed rounds topped $1B in 2026: Ineffable Intelligence in London and Advanced Machine Intelligence in Paris, both betting on new kinds of foundation models. Below them, sizes drop quickly, with the rest of the top 20 between about €7M and €55M, and roughly half going to defense, drones and counter-drone systems.

At Series B and later, Mistral AI's €3B round leads, followed by Isomorphic Labs and Helsing. Germany and the UK account for about two thirds of the 20 largest later-stage rounds, spread across AI, defense, space and quantum.

Announced rounds have grown roughly ninefold since 2018.

Equity rounds climbed from about 15 in 2018 to more than 135 so far in 2026, and this year has already passed all of 2025 with a quarter still to go. Seed is still the most common round, but in 2026 Series A has caught up with it for the first time.

Later stages are growing fastest: Series B and later rounds went from about 10 in 2021 to nearly 50 this year as the first wave of companies matures. Grants and debt add another 30 or so deals a year, a reminder of how much public money flows into deep tech.

More than €25B raised in 2026, nearly triple 2025.

Disclosed capital grew to €6B in 2024 and €11B in 2025, then jumped to over €25B in 2026. A handful of mega-rounds, including several in the hundreds of millions or more, drive much of that total. The typical deal is growing too: the median round has gone from around €10M in 2024 to about €25M this year.

Size roughly triples at each step: a median of about €1.3M at pre-seed, €5M at seed, €17M at Series A, €52M at Series B and over €115M from Series C on. Amounts are approximate, converted to euros, and only include rounds with a disclosed size.

Government-backed funds are the most active investors

Funds such as European Innovation Council 🇪🇺, Bayern Kapital 🇩🇪 or Bpifrance 🇫🇷 make up the largest group of investors and 5 out of the top 6 by quantity of investments, especially into the earliest and riskiest rounds. Well-known specialist and generalist funds from Europe and the US are second and lead by total money invested.

Angels, family offices and venture studios are a small minority by total capital raised, but all play a vital part with their varied risk profiles enabling a range of companies to be successful through smaller early stage investments. Two US funds, NVentures (Nvidia) and General Catalyst (large European office), also appear in the top 10 list, showing the desire of US capital to access the European market.

Investors span 20+ countries and some of the data for smaller investors still needs to be enhanced, perhaps sharpening this analysis.