Forty-two equity, debt and grant rounds of $100m+ were announced in Q1, according to Sifted data — the busiest quarter for so-called megarounds since Q2 2022 when checked against Dealroom data.
The surge was led by climate tech startups, which accounted for 43% of those rounds and boasted 13 of the biggest 20 fundraises last quarter.
The quarter’s 42 megarounds totalled €17.4bn — €5bn of which belonged to equity-based deals — and represented a big climb on the 17 megarounds recorded in the same period last year.
Rounds over $100m, though no longer rare in Europe, have hardly been routine lately, with the tech scene making a painful adjustment to leaner times. Investors participated in 101 European megarounds overall last year, says Dealroom.
Germany saw the most megaround action in Q1 with 12 rounds, followed by Sweden with eight and the UK with six.
Stockholm and Berlin both had five each to their name. The Swedish capital hosted giant deals for heat pump startup Aira, green steel plant H2 Green Steel and battery maker Northvolt. Berlin saw big rounds for solar company Enpal, smartphone rental site Everphone, e-commerce service Razor Group and fintechs Solaris and Pliant.
London, meanwhile, hosted four substantial deals — for fintechs Flagstone and Monzo as well as data centre providers Deep Green and Kao Data. There were also three hefty deals apiece cut in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Gothenburg.
Seventeen deals in the quarter surpassed the $200m mark — including a $5bn debt financing round for Northvolt and a $4.5bn debt and equity package for H2 Green Steel.
The most active investors by number of megadeals done (which also consists of debts, convertibles and grants) during Q1 include the European Investment Bank — backers of Northvolt, H2 Green Steel and Sunfire’s (€100m) debt fundraising — and Sweden’s Kinnevik, which invested in Stockholm-based heat pump supplier Aira’s €145m Series B, as well as the $110m deal for Dutch hospitality software unicorn Mews, and the $104m for Barcelona travel management site TravelPerk.
They were followed by High-Tech Gründerfonds (Tubulis and Ineratec), Planet First Partners (Sunfire and Finn), EQT Ventures (Heart Aerospace and 1X) and BNP Paribas (H2 Green Steel and Polestar) — who were all involved in two megarounds each.
Looking at the wider picture, Sifted tracked 1,453 funding rounds in Q1 (1,386 of which were equity). Across those deals, startups raised €25.95bn in Q1.
