2024 brought mixed fortunes for European tech. The first half of the year saw a flurry of dealmaking, with €28.6bn in equity raised by startups, but the second half of the year saw a 36% slump, with just €18.4bn raised, according to Sifted data.
But while investment was uneven, this didn’t prevent some VCs from going on a tear. The top 10 most active investors backed a combined 713 startups last year, with each of these VCs participating in at least 40 deals each. The top 100 backed 2,155 startups.
Most prolific in 2024 was UK early-stage investor SFC Capital, which wrote cheques in excess of £18m for 102 startups. Next came French VC Kima Ventures, which backed 89 companies, followed by German investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), which contributed to 85 raises.
Sifted tracked all publicly announced deals in 2024 and contacted investors to verify their deal count. Some VCs may have unannounced or private investments, which are not reflected in our data. The average deal size represents the total deal amount, not just the investor’s contribution.
The top 10 most active VCs in 2024
1\ SFC Capital
HQ: UK
Deal count: 102
Average deal size: €723k
Most active vertical: Healthtech
The London-based generalist splurged more than £18m across climate tech, robotics, fintech and B2B SaaS companies in 2024. One of the startups it backed was AI agent-creating Fern AI, founded by a team of former engineers at data company Palantir. SFC backs those startups eligible for the SEIS and EIS schemes — these are government incentives for investors supporting UK startups. With cheque sizes ranging from £100k-500k, the SFC is typically the UK’s biggest pre-seed investor.
2\ Kima Ventures
HQ: France
Deal count: 89
Average deal size: €4m
Most active vertical: B2B SaaS
The French family office, which manages French billionaire Xavier Niel’s private wealth, aims to write €150k-sized cheques for two or three startups a week. Munich-based Pruna AI was just one deal the firm did last year — the Munich company aims to make AI models “cheaper, faster and greener”. Successful bets in the past for Kima include raises for money transfer company Wise and social media app BeReal.
3\ HTGF
HQ: Germany
Deal count: 85
Average deal size: €12m
Most active vertical: Deeptech & Healthtech
HTGF has long been a sprightly early-stage investor, backing deeptechs, life sciences and climate tech startups. Last year, it backed everything from nuclear fusion (Proxima Fusion) to wind energy (Caeli Wind). The public-private investor deploys capital from its €494m early-stage fund and in 2024 launched a €660m “opportunity fund”.
4\ Antler
HQ: Singapore
Deal count: 84
Average deal size: €2m
Most active vertical: B2B SaaS
This VC bets on founders before they even establish companies. It invests across B2B, healthtech, proptech and consumer fields. Among its bets last year were data intelligence platforms like Datamonk and property maintenance systems like AskVinny.
5\ Plug and Play
HQ: US
Deal count: 74
Average deal size: €7m
Most active vertical: Healthtech
Founded in 2006 in California, Plug and Play has both an accelerator programme and a VC arm. It operates in 15 countries and expanded to London in 2019. The firm invests $50k-$250k in pre-seed to Series A startups, focusing on B2B. Notable past investments include Lending Club, N26 and PayPal.
6\ Mercia Ventures
HQ: UK
Deal count: 72
Average deal size: €6m
Most active vertical: Healthtech
Specialising in software, consumer tech, life sciences, AI and deeptech startups, this VC invests from pre-seed to Series A. The firm typically writes cheques worth between £750k and £5m and has backed successful startups like fruit and veg delivery company Oddbox, AI-driven fact-checking platform Logically and drug discovery startup Turbine AI.
7\ Kickfund
HQ: Switzerland
Deal count: 68
Average deal size: €3m
Most active vertical: Deeptech & Healthtech
The fund has carved out a niche backing Switzerland’s deeptech startups, writing co-investment cheques of up to CHF 850k for alumni of the Venture Kick competition. In 2024, it rolled out Kickfund Ventures Fund I, securing CHF 70m in its first closing. Its portfolio stretches across alternative energy, discovery tools in healthtech and food products.
8\ Octopus Ventures
HQ: UK
Deal count: 48
Average deal size: €15m
Most active vertical: Healthtech
The venture arm of Octopus has been investing since 2008, with 32 exits under its belt to date. It backs startups at every stage — from pre-seed to post-Series A — across sectors like B2B SaaS, climate tech, consumer, deeptech, fintech and healthtech. Bets last year include a £35m Series B raise by the UK’s LabGenius, which uses machine learning to design antibody therapies to treat cancer.
9\ Startup Wise Guys
HQ: Estonia
Deal count: 46
Average deal size: €935k
Most active vertical: B2B SaaS
This accelerator writes €100k-sized cheques for startups and has supported over 15 exits, with notable acquisitions including Estonian farm management software company VitalFields’s purchase by Climate Corporation in 2016 and Cypryus’s video editing app Vochi by Pinterest in 2021. The VC was the biggest backer of companies that appeared on Sifted’s 2024 Eastern Europe and Baltics leaderboard, a ranking of the fastest-growing startups in the region.
10\ Speedinvest
HQ: Austria
Deal count: 45
Average deal size: €14m
Most active vertical: B2B SaaS & Climate tech
An early-stage fund investing in B2B and B2C startups. The fund has built a portfolio featuring companies like Irish business lender Wayflyer, insurtech wefox and software company OneTrust. An example of a deal the VC led last year was a $5.3m raise by Cambridge-based AllFocal Optics, which makes lenses that the company says can remove the nausea and discomfort typically associated with virtual, augmented and mixed reality experiences.
This article was updated on March 17 to move Plug and Play up to fifth position after receiving a full list of their 2024 investments, that was subsequently verified by Sifted.
