Europe’s Startups Experience Best Quarter in 4 Years, According to Crunchbase Data
North American startup funding fell 35% to $92 billion in the latest quarter, without the significant contributions from new OpenAI and Anthropic megarounds. Meanwhile, AI startups have acquired 195 other AI startups this year, surpassing the total for all of 2025.
Key Findings:
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European Startups Thrive: European startups raised a substantial $25 billion in Q3, marking their strongest venture funding quarter in four years. This is a 77% increase from the $14 billion raised in Q3 2025.
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AI Dominates European Funding: AI companies accounted for 75% of Europe's funding, totaling $18.8 billion, the highest share on record.
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Top European Fundraisers: Four European companies secured over $1 billion each in the quarter, comprising nearly 40% of the region's total funding. These include Mistral's €3 billion Series D round, Nscale's $3.36 billion convertible note, and defense startups Helsing and Quantum Systems, each raising $1.8 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.
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Regional Performance: The UK led with $7.5 billion, followed by Germany ($5 billion), France ($4.8 billion), Sweden ($1.5 billion), the Netherlands ($1.4 billion), and Spain ($1.2 billion).
North American Trends:
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Decline in Funding: North America's funding drop is attributed to the absence of new megarounds for OpenAI and Anthropic, which raised substantial amounts in the previous quarters.
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Largest North American Rounds: Databricks secured $5 billion, Crusoe raised $3.9 billion, The Boring Company acquired $3 billion, and Cognition closed a $2 billion round. AI startups collectively received $61 billion, accounting for two-thirds of all funding.
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Acquisitions and IPOs: There were 11 North American startup acquisitions valued at $1 billion or more. Nvidia's purchase of Hugging Face was the largest, worth $12.93 billion. 17 venture-backed companies went public, raising approximately $4 billion.
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AI Startup M&A: Venture-backed AI companies have acquired 195 AI startups this year, a 14% increase from the entire year of 2025. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Legora (a legal AI company based in Stockholm) led these deals, with OpenAI making 10 acquisitions this year.
By Cristian Dina, CRO at The Next Web. Dina is recognized for his extensive interviews with industry leaders and his book, King of Networking. At 23, he was featured on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list for 2025.