Top Venture Capital Firms in the UK and Europe (2026): Index, Balderton, Atomico and the New Guard

The top venture capital firms in Europe have finally reached a scale where a founder can raise seed, Series A, B and growth rounds without a US lead, though the biggest rounds still involve American or Gulf money. This guide from the Kurums Venture Capital hub maps the firms by country: the London multi-stage houses (Index, Balderton, Atomico), the German and Austrian early-stage specialists (HV Capital, Cherry, Earlybird, Project A, Point Nine, Speedinvest), the French platforms (Partech, Eurazeo, Elaia, Kima, Bpifrance), the Nordic funds (Northzone, Creandum, EQT Ventures, Kinnevik) and the Benelux and Iberian players. You will learn each firm’s latest fund size and close date, its stage and sector tilt, how the European Investment Fund shapes the market, which 2025–2026 closes signal where capital is heading, and how to approach each type of firm.

How big is the European venture market in 2026, and who funds it?

Europe invested about $44 billion of venture capital in 2025 according to Atomico’s State of European Tech, roughly flat on 2024 and well below the 2021 peak, while Invest Europe counted €35.3 billion, the second-highest total on record. Deep tech took 36% of the money, nearly double its share four years earlier.

The structure of the market explains why European fund sizes lag the United States. Atomico’s 2025 report notes that European pension funds allocate just 0.009% of assets to venture, against 0.028% in the US, and estimates that matching the US ratio would unlock about $210 billion of additional venture funding over a decade. In the absence of pension money, the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EU’s equity arm, acts as the anchor investor. In 2025 the EIF worked with more than 300 partners and channelled close to €16 billion into Europe’s capital markets, and its European Tech Champions Initiative was created specifically to back growth-stage funds of €1 billion or more. Add national promotional banks (Bpifrance in France, KfW Capital in Germany, the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds in the UK, the Dutch Invest-NL) and you have a market where public money is in most cap tables one layer up.

The second feature is sector concentration. Atomico counted 28 new European unicorns in 2025 and over 27,000 new founders, the most ever recorded, but the money went disproportionately to AI (Mistral, Helsing, Lovable, Black Forest Labs), defence and climate-industrial projects. Invest Europe’s data shows ICT took €17.2 billion of the €35.3 billion and that the UK and Ireland led regional VC investment while Southern Europe posted the fastest growth. Murph Capital’s Q2 2026 tracker counted 48 European fund closes worth $7.1 billion in the quarter against $28.2 billion for US funds, a ratio that has not changed much in a decade.

Which UK venture capital firms lead in 2026?

Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Atomico are the three London multi-stage houses with $1 billion-plus fund families; behind them sit Accel London ($650 million), Octopus Ventures (about £1.8 billion AUM), Molten Ventures (listed), Notion Capital, LocalGlobe/Phoenix Court, Hoxton Ventures, Seedcamp, Plural and Air Street.

Index Ventures is the most international: founded in Geneva, headquartered in London with offices in San Francisco and New York, and raising $2.3 billion in 2024 across an $800 million venture fund and a $1.5 billion growth fund. It is as likely to lead a Series B in New York as in Berlin, and its 2026 Form D filings show it is still deploying. Balderton raised $1.3 billion in 2024, split into a $615 million Early Stage Fund IX (seed to Series A, $2–20 million checks) and a growth fund; it is the most consistently Europe-only of the three and publishes an open “what we look for” thesis. Atomico, founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, closed $1.24 billion in September 2024 across a $485 million Venture Fund VI (mostly Series A) and a $754 million Growth VI, with climate, AI, deep tech and defence as stated priorities.

The seed layer is deep. Seedcamp (€166 million Fund VI, 2023; first checks typically $350,000 to $1.25 million) is Europe’s longest-running institutional seed fund with Revolut, Wise and UiPath on its record. LocalGlobe and its Phoenix Court sibling funds (Latitude for growth, Solar for later stage) run a concentrated pre-seed and seed programme out of King’s Cross. Hoxton Ventures backs contrarian seed bets (Darktrace, Deliveroo, Babylon). Octopus Ventures, part of the Octopus Group with about £1.8 billion under management, runs health, climate, fintech, deep tech and B2B software pods. Notion Capital closed a €300 million Fund V plus a $130 million growth opportunities fund in 2025 for B2B SaaS and AI. Molten Ventures is the London-listed vehicle through which public-market investors get exposure to European venture, and we cover listed and feeder routes in our guide to fund of funds and feeder platforms.

Two newer firms define the 2026 frontier. Plural, founded by ex-Skype, Wise and Songkick operators, raised $432 million in 2024 and is in market for a Fund III targeting up to €1 billion for defence, fusion, space and AI. Air Street Capital, Nathan Benaich’s AI-only firm, closed a $232 million Fund III in 2026. Both reflect the UK’s shift from consumer and fintech toward frontier technology.

Which German, Austrian and Swiss venture firms matter most?

HV Capital (Munich, €710 million Fund IX, seed to Series D), Cherry Ventures (Berlin, $500 million across Fund V and an opportunity fund, 2025), Earlybird (Berlin, €360 million Fund VIII, 2026), Project A (Berlin, €325 million Fund V, 2025), Point Nine (Berlin, B2B SaaS seed), Speedinvest (Vienna, €350 million Fund 4) and Lakestar (Zurich, over $6 billion AUM) lead the DACH region.

HV Capital, formerly Holtzbrinck Ventures, is the largest independent German manager with about €2.8 billion raised across its history and a mandate that stretches from €500,000 seed checks to €60 million growth rounds; its portfolio includes Zalando, Flixbus, SumUp and Enpal. Cherry Ventures announced $500 million in February 2025 across an early-stage fund and a follow-on vehicle, explicitly pitching the goal of backing Europe’s first trillion-dollar company and writing €2–7 million first checks across Berlin, London and Stockholm. Earlybird’s €360 million Fund VIII, closed in 2026, concentrates on AI applications, software infrastructure and deep tech in Western Europe, while the firm’s separate Digital East fund covers Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe, which we cover in the Middle East and Türkiye guide.

Project A’s €325 million Fund V (2025) is an operator-heavy pre-seed and seed fund with a stated interest in defence, fintech, AI and supply-chain software. Point Nine remains the reference seed investor for B2B SaaS and marketplaces in Europe, with a public, open application form and a reputation for small, early checks into companies like Algolia, Contentful and Loom. Speedinvest, headquartered in Vienna but operating across Berlin, London, Munich and Paris, writes €500,000 to €3 million pre-seed and seed checks and has raised over €1 billion across its funds, with Fund 4 at €350 million. Lakestar, Klaus Hommels’ Zurich firm, is the DACH region’s most growth-oriented investor and an early backer of Spotify, Revolut and Isar Aerospace. The German system also includes High-Tech Gründerfonds, the public-private seed fund that is the country’s most active investor by count, and KfW Capital as the main domestic LP. Germany’s structural exit problem, where most outcomes are trade sales rather than IPOs, is analysed in our piece on Germany’s scaleup gap.

Which French venture firms and public investors dominate Paris?

Partech (about €2.5–3 billion AUM; €360 million Partech Venture fund for Series A and B), Eurazeo’s venture arm (about €2.8 billion within a €39 billion group), Elaia (deep tech and AI), Kima Ventures (Xavier Niel’s high-volume seed fund, roughly 100 deals a year) and the state investment bank Bpifrance form the core of French venture capital.

Partech is the most Silicon Valley-like French firm, running seed, venture and growth vehicles with offices in Paris, Berlin, San Francisco and Dakar; its Partech Venture fund targets companies with €1–10 million of recurring revenue. Eurazeo brings a listed, multi-asset balance sheet and has become the largest French growth investor through funds such as Eurazeo Growth and its digital and healthcare sleeves. Elaia, which spun out of the CNRS research ecosystem, is the reference investor for deep tech and AI spin-outs, including Mistral’s early backers’ ecosystem, Criteo and Shift Technology. Kima Ventures is a different animal: a founder-funded seed vehicle that writes small, fast checks into around 100 companies a year, often via a public application form, and sits on an unusually large share of French seed cap tables.

Bpifrance is the system’s keystone. It is simultaneously a direct investor (seed through growth through its Large Venture fund), a fund-of-funds LP in most French and many European managers, a lender and a grant provider through the French Tech programme. Few French rounds above €20 million close without Bpifrance somewhere in the structure. The 2025–2026 cycle also brought sector funds: Jeito Capital’s $1.17 billion Fund II for European biopharma, Lauxera’s $566 million Growth II for healthtech and E2D’s $570 million Franco-German defence and dual-use fund, all listed in Murph Capital’s Q2 2026 tracker. France’s AI story, led by Mistral and the H company, has pulled US firms such as a16z, General Catalyst and Lightspeed into Paris rounds, which is why French founders increasingly pair a Partech or Elaia lead with a US co-lead by Series B.

Which Nordic, Benelux and Iberian venture firms should founders know?

The Nordics are home to Northzone (€1 billion Fund X), Creandum (€500 million Fund VII, 2024), EQT Ventures (€1.1 billion Fund III) and Kinnevik (listed investment company); Benelux has Peak, henQ, Keen Venture Partners and Invest-NL; Iberia has Seaya, Kibo, K Fund, Nauta and Indico, with Southern Europe recording the fastest VC growth in 2025 per Invest Europe.

Northzone, founded in Oslo in 1996 and now operating out of Stockholm and London, raised a €1 billion tenth fund and backed Spotify, Klarna, Trustpilot and Kahoot; it invests from seed to growth with $1–15 million-plus checks. Creandum, Stockholm’s seed and Series A specialist, closed €500 million for Fund VII in 2024 and counts Spotify, iZettle, Klarna, Bolt and Depop among its wins. EQT Ventures, the venture arm of the EQT private-equity group, uses an in-house data platform (Motherbrain) to source and raised €1.1 billion for Fund III; EQT’s broader growth and healthcare funds give it unusual firepower for later rounds. Kinnevik, the listed Stockholm investment company behind Zalando and Babylon, is a long-term growth investor with a public balance sheet.

In the Netherlands, Peak (Amsterdam, seed), henQ (B2B software) and Keen Venture Partners (growth) are the private names, with Invest-NL providing public co-investment. Belgium’s ecosystem revolves around Hummingbird Ventures (early-stage, with notable Turkish and Nordic bets) and the Flemish PMV. In Spain, Seaya Ventures (climate and Andes funds), Kibo Ventures, K Fund, Nauta Capital and the Madrid-based Indico Capital have grown with the Glovo, Cabify, Jobandtalent and Factorial generation, and Portugal’s Indico and Armilar follow a similar pattern. Southern Europe’s growth in 2025, flagged by Invest Europe, was driven by AI and fintech rounds in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon rather than by new local mega-funds.

How do the leading European firms compare by country?

The table groups the main firms by headquarters country with their latest disclosed fund, stage and sector tilt. Sizes are as announced by the firms or reported by TechCrunch, Sifted, tech.eu and the Altss European ranking; AUM figures are approximate.

Sources: firm announcements; TechCrunch (Sept 2024); Peony European early-stage funds 2026; Altss largest European VC firms; Murph Capital Q2 2026 tracker. Fund years refer to final or announced close.

What do the 2025–2026 fund closes say about where European capital is going?

The closes point to AI, defence, deep tech and healthcare: Earlybird’s AI-tilted €360 million, Air Street’s $232 million AI-only fund, Plural’s up-to-€1 billion deep-tech target, E2D’s $570 million defence fund, Jeito’s $1.17 billion biopharma fund and Cherry’s trillion-dollar-company rhetoric all closed or launched between February 2025 and mid-2026.

Three themes stand out. First, defence has gone from untouchable to mainstream in under three years: Helsing’s rounds, Atomico and Plural adding defence to their theses, Project A naming it first in its Fund V priorities and E2D raising a dedicated Franco-German vehicle. Second, AI is absorbing the generalist funds’ attention in the same way it has in the US, with Mistral, Lovable, Black Forest Labs and DeepL drawing in a16z, General Catalyst, Lightspeed and Index alongside local leads. Third, climate has cooled from its 2022 peak but survives inside industrial and energy theses, which is why Atomico’s and EQT’s climate language has shifted to “climate-industrial”. We track the global sector split in our analysis of where venture capital went in 2024–2026.

The counterweight is fundraising difficulty. Peony’s 2026 survey of European early-stage funds flags that Northzone and EQT Ventures were still deploying 2022 vintages with no successor announced, and Seedcamp’s Fund VI dates from 2023. Murph Capital’s Q2 2026 data shows Europe raising about a quarter of the US total. European founders should assume that the firms with fresh 2025–2026 capital (Cherry, Earlybird, Project A, Plural, Air Street, Notion, Balderton, Atomico, Index) are the most active leads as of October 2026. For a view of which funds are currently in market, see our list of venture funds raising in 2026.

How should founders approach European VC firms?

Use open application forms where they exist (Point Nine, Seedcamp, Kima, Speedinvest, Cherry, Earlybird and Antler all run them), warm introductions for the multi-stage houses (Index, Balderton, Atomico, Northzone, EQT) and public co-investor programmes (Bpifrance, HTGF, EIC Accelerator) to fill rounds. European partners expect more capital efficiency and clearer unit economics than their US peers.

Europe’s seed layer is unusually accessible. Point Nine publishes its investment criteria and a form; Seedcamp runs rolling applications and periodic open calls; Kima Ventures states that it reviews every inbound deck; Speedinvest, Cherry and Earlybird all accept direct pitches through their websites. We list these in our directory of European and UK VC firms you can apply to directly. The multi-stage firms behave more like their US counterparts: a Balderton or Index partner will take a cold meeting occasionally, but the deal flow that converts comes from portfolio founders, angel syndicates and the seed funds they co-invest with.

Two practical differences from the US. European firms are more likely to ask about path to profitability and less likely to fund a pre-revenue Series A outside AI and deep tech; a London Series A in 2026 typically needs €1–3 million of ARR unless the team is exceptional. And European rounds are more syndicated: a €10 million Series A often has a lead plus two or three co-investors and a public co-investor, which means more diligence streams and a longer close. Our guide to the venture capital fundraising process and timeline explains how to run that process in parallel, and our comparison of fundraising and investor CRM software covers the tools to track a 60-investor pipeline.

How does Europe compare with the US and Asia for a founder choosing where to raise?

Europe offers deeper seed access, lower entry valuations and cheaper engineering talent, but fewer growth leads: a European company raising above €100 million will almost always need a US, Gulf or crossover investor. Asia’s markets are more fragmented and, outside India and Korea, were in a funding trough during 2025.

The comparison with the leading US venture firms is one of scale: a16z’s single January 2026 raise exceeded the combined latest funds of every firm in the European table above. That is why Index, Accel, Lightspeed, General Catalyst and Sequoia all run London teams and why European Series B and C rounds routinely feature a US lead. Against Asia, Europe looks healthier: our guide to venture firms in China, Japan and South Korea shows a Chinese USD-fund market still constrained by geopolitics, while Korea and Japan have grown on the back of government fund-of-funds programmes rather than private LP money, much as Europe has with the EIF.

For a European founder in 2026, the practical playbook is to raise pre-seed and seed locally from the open-application funds, target a Balderton, Index, Atomico, Northzone, HV or Partech lead at Series A, and build US revenue early enough that an American growth fund will lead Series B. Browse the full VC Firms by Country pillar for the regional guides, and read our note on why Japan has so few unicorns for a cautionary comparison of what happens when growth capital never arrives.

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