It’s been a tough few years for new VC fund managers out hunting for investment. Returns have been few and far between, the IPO market is still stuck in the mud and some of Europe’s biggest VCs have been raising even bigger funds.
And yet, first-time fund managers are still giving it a go.
So far in 2025, we're seeing more defence-focused funds raising (and closing) than any other year in Sifted's memory, with a healthy dose of AI, secondaries and super early-stage founder focused funds too.
Read on for a full list of Europe-based VC closing funds in 2025.
(Plus: Find out who closed funds — first, or final close — in 2024, 2023 and 2022 here.)
Circle & Co
HQ: London
Fund size: £11.5m
Focus: Consumer tech
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
In June, solo GP Sasha Trower announced a final close at £11.5m for her first fund, focused on consumer tech businesses. Her firm, Circle & Co, will invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups, in Europe and the US, in three main areas: marketplace businesses, consumer platforms (Spotify and Revolut being good examples of these) and consumerised SaaS.
Adams Street Europe fund
HQ: London
Fund size: €270m
Focus: European venture
US fund of funds Adams Street Partners announced its first European venture fund in May. The fund will primarily invest in new VC funds, with up to 30% of the capital reserved for secondaries and co-investments into startups, Europe-focused partner Ross Morrison told Sifted.
QuantumLight
HQ: London
Fund size: $250m
Focus: Generalist, worldwide
Stage: Series B and C
Revolut founder Nik Storonsky’s VC firm QuantumLight was founded in 2022 to take a dramatically data-led approach to venture. In May the firm — which has almost entirely removed human judgement from its investment process, according to CEO Ilya Kondrashov — closed a $250m fund. “Our ambition is to build the world’s best systematic venture capital and growth equity firm,” said Storonsky.
Keen Defence
HQ: Amsterdam
Fund size: €40m committed, target €125m
Focus: Defence tech
Stage: Seed to Series B
Dutch investor Keen Venture Partners has previously raised two more generalist funds, and is now raising €125m for a new defence-focused fund, which is yet to do a first close. It will invest in around 20 to 25 European startups from seed to Series B, working in areas such as cyber defence, robotics, AI, autonomous systems and spacetech. The EIF announced a €40m commitment to the fund in May.
AVP Growth
HQ: Paris
Fund size: Target €1.5bn
Focus: Businesses with annual recurring revenue of €100m+
Stage: Late
In April, Atlantic Vantage Point (AVP), previously known as AXA Venture Partners and once (but no longer) the corporate venture arm of French insurer ASA, announced the launch of a first-time €1.5bn growth fund set to be one of the largest late-stage VC funds in Europe. The firm says that it is on track to secure €1bn by the end of the year and anticipates reaching its final close by mid-2026. AXA has committed to invest €750m in the new fund.
Osney Capital
HQ: London
Fund size: £50m
Focus: Cybersecurity
Stage: Early-stage
UK VC Osney Capital announced its first, £50m fund in April, to invest in early-stage cybersecurity startups. LPs include public fund British Business Bank and US-based defence-focused fund-of-funds IronGate. Osney plans to invest in 30 portfolio companies at pre-seed and seed stage, writing cheques between £250k and £2.5m.
EWOR
HQ: Berlin
Fund size: €30m
Focus: Serial entrepreneurs
Stage: Early
German accelerator EWOR, which aims to challenge Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator, raised €30m to invest in programme participants in April. Founded in 2021, the accelerator invests up to €500k in each startup — with €110k as an initial cheque and €390k in uncapped investment which converts to equity in a later round — and takes an initial 7% equity stake.
Outlier Grove
HQ: London
Fund size: Closed $10m, target $20m
Focus: B2B startups
Stage: Angel and seed stage
Former Accel investor Candice du Fretay, who worked on the firm’s investments in buzzy agentic AI startup H Company and fantasy football unicorn Sorare, announced a first close (at $10m) of a target $20m solo GP fund in April. Her firm, Outlier Grove, will back European B2B startups at angel and seed stages with tickets ranging from $200k-500k.
Hedosophia Secondaries
HQ: London
Fund size: $200m+
Focus: Secondaries
Hedosophia, the secretive VC founded by financier Ian Osborne, raised its first dedicated secondaries fund in April, sources told Sifted. Hedosophia completed the first close in December 2024 of between $200-300m, according to people with knowledge of the situation, and is still raising.
201 Ventures
HQ: Spain
Fund size: $22m
Focus: Defence
Stage: Early
Former CIA officer Eric Slesinger announced his solo GP fund, defence-focused 201 Ventures, in April. “We’re backing founders building hypersonics, biosecurity, subsurface mapping, maritime sensing, Arctic autonomy & more,” he posted on LinkedIn. “We back PhDs who can win a bar fight.”
Junction Growth Investors
HQ: Antwerp
Fund size: €115m
Focus: Climate
Stage: Growth
Belgian firm Junction Growth Investors is an Article 9 fund focused on European startups playing a role in the energy transition. It will write cheques of up to €15m. Backers include large family offices, entrepreneurs, the EIF, BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity, PMV and Belgian Growth Fund.
Project Europe
HQ: London
Fund size: €10m
Focus: Founders under the age of 25
Stage: Early
Project Europe is a €10m fund announced in March to a lot of fanfare. Presented as a ‘project’ to help build Europe’s next €100bn companies, it’s backed by 150 founders and three VC firms: Harry Stebbings’ 20VC, Berlin-based Point Nine and New York-based Adjacent.
Stebbings, who is leading the initiative — along with CEO Kitty Mayo — says Project Europe will invest €200k into 10 to 20 aspiring homegrown entrepreneurs under the age of 25 every year. “If the Thiel fellowship and YC had a baby, it would be this,” Stebbings told Sifted, referring to Peter Thiel’s fellowship which doles out grants to young entrepreneurs, and famed Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator.
Araya Ventures
HQ: London
Fund size: Closed £18.2m, target £20m
Focus: UK-based B2B SaaS and consumer startups
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Solo GP VC firm Araya Ventures’ first fund — dubbed the ‘Super Angel Fund’ — announced a first close in March. It will invest in UK-based startups at pre-seed and seed, with a particular focus on healthtech, fintech, commerce and the future of work. Founder Rupa Popat expects to write cheques of between £150k-450k in around 60 companies.
SmartCap Defence Fund
HQ: Estonia
Fund size: €100m
Focus: Defence
Estonian state-backed LP SmartCap launched an €100m fund to invest in defence startups and VC funds in February. It will invest up to €10m into startups at all stages, and up to €20m into VC funds, so long as they commit to investing at least as much back into Estonia. Its fund commitments include London-based VC Plural, Antler’s Nordics fund and the NATO Innovation Fund.
NaturalX Health Ventures
HQ: Berlin
Fund size: €100m
Focus: Consumer health
Stage: Series A
NaturalX Health Ventures, the VC arm of German pharmaceutical giant Schwabe Group, announced a new €100m fund to back early-stage consumer health startups in Europe in February. It’s focused on Series A rounds, with typical cheques being around €3m-5m. The entire €100m was provided by parent company Schwabe, a 150-year-old conglomerate of health and pharmaceutical companies around the world.
CDTM Venture Fund
HQ: Munich
Fund size: €8.2m
Focus: Startups founded by CDTM alumni
Stage: Early
Started by former students at the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) — the Munich-based programme known for its brutal 6% acceptance rate and gaggle of unicorn founder alumni — the CDTM fund invests in startups with at least one alum from the programme on the founding team.
It’s backed by 316 CDTM alumni, including unicorn founders, researchers from Big Tech and academia and executives from various corporates, who’ve pooled together €8.2m to invest in 60 fledgling startups over the next four years. It was announced in February.
33East
HQ: Cyprus
Fund size: Closed €26m, target €37m
Focus: Founders and startups with a connection to Cyprus
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
London- and Cyprus-based VC 33East announced a first close of its first fund in January. It will invest in early-stage founders and startups with a connection to Cyprus — and hopes to turn the country into something of an innovation hub. LPs include the EIF, the Government of Cyprus, the National Recovery and Resilience Fund and the Bank of Cyprus. Initial investments will range between €500k and €1m.
Defiant
HQ: London and Lisbon
Fund size: Closed $30m, target $70m
Focus: B2B SaaS and fintech
Stage: Seed and Series A
Defiant announced a first close of its fund in January. It plans to invest between $1m-10m in B2B SaaS and fintech startups. Its managing partners, Joseph Pizzolato (former Felix Capital investor) and Cam Rail (former founder and trader), are childhood friends. It bills itself as a data-driven VC, and has built a tool to source new deals, analyse pitch decks and score startups. It’s also working on benchmarking tools for startups. LPs include family offices and general partners at Atomico, Cherry Ventures, Hedosophia, Earlybird and Mubadala.
AgileGTM Blockchain Fund
HQ: Lisbon
Fund size: Closed $2m, target $10m
Focus: B2B blockchain startups
Stage: Pre-seed
AgileGTM is a new VC looking for B2B blockchain startups to back across Europe. Its anchor investor in Wood & Company, an investment bank covering central and eastern Europe. It plans to invest in 40-50 companies over the course of the fund, all of which must first go through the team's go-to-market programme, in-person in Lisbon. AgileGTM invests €150k in return for between 2-6% equity.
This list was last updated on June 3, 2025. If a fund is missing from this list, please let us know.
