KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Funding to European start-ups rose in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q2024), reaching close to US$16 billion (RM74.84 billion).
In a report on Monday, Crunchbase, which tracks trends, investments and news of global companies from start-ups to the Fortune 1000, said that overall, funding was up 31% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) and 17% year-on-year (y-o-y).
The firm said both early and late-stage funding was up — with a notable increase in late-stage funding.
It said that for the first time in a decade, quarterly funding to European start-ups was higher than in Asia.
According to a recent Crunchbase report, Asia-based start-ups suffered their worst quarter since 4Q2015, not helped by the tension between the US and China.
Crunchbase said across Europe, the UK was the leading market with US$6.7 billion, and France the second largest with US$2.9 billion in funding — both markets up y-o-y.
The third largest market, Germany, was down this past quarter, with US$1.8 billion going to start-ups there.
AI led in Europe
Artificial intelligence (AI) was the leading industry in Europe, with US$3.3 billion invested in 2Q2024.
The second largest sector was financial services, totalling US$3 billion.
Sustainability was the third largest in Europe with US$2.5 billion invested, as renewable energy companies raised mega-rounds north of US$100 million.
Late-stage
Crunchbase said late-stage funding reached US$7.5 billion across more than 100 rounds.
It said funding was up the most q-o-q and y-o-y, but it was not the highest quarter in the last year.
Ever since funding began to slow down a couple years ago, quarterly totals have fluctuated as late-stage funding surged or fell, the firm said.
Methodology
The data contained in the report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of July 7, 2024.
The data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.
Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to US dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, initial public offerings and other financial events are reported.