{"id":116651,"date":"2025-09-05T15:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116651\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T15:51:06","slug":"european-start-up-valuations-boom-on-investor-frenzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116651\/","title":{"rendered":"European start-up valuations boom on investor frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/p>\n

European start-ups are experiencing a surge of investor interest, with valuations for artificial intelligence, fintech and defence groups jumping as venture capital firms battle to fund the continent\u2019s hottest new companies.<\/p>\n

AI voice start-up ElevenLabs is discussing a sale of employees\u2019 shares at a more than $6bn valuation, a doubling of the company\u2019s value from January when it last raised funds, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Groups including Swedish \u201cvibe-coding\u201d start-up Lovable and German software firm n8n have also experienced a flurry of investor interest in recent weeks. French AI group Mistral is in talks to raise new money that would value it at about $10bn from investors that include Dutch chipmaking equipment supplier ASML, almost double its level last year, according to people close to the discussions. <\/p>\n

It comes as investors globally are rushing to back fast-growing AI companies amid a boom in the cutting-edge technology. This has led to a series of huge fundraising deals this year, particularly in the US, with OpenAI in the process of raising $40bn from investors led by SoftBank, while Anthropic this week closed an expanded <\/a>$13bn round, valuing it at $170bn. <\/p>\n

\u201cFomo is definitely back,\u201d said Alex Lim, a general partner at the VC firm IVP. \u201cYou\u2019ve started to see large growth rounds in Europe that we haven\u2019t seen for the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

European VC investment has bucked off three years of contractions and could reach the highest ever total this year excluding the boom years of 2021 and 2022, according to data from Dealroom. It said European VC deals are on pace to rise 3 to 4 per cent in 2025 to reach $57bn, roughly the same total as 2023.<\/p>\n

This rise has seen some AI companies field inbound investment offers, while other tech start-ups have expanded their fundraising rounds or brought forward their next one to take advantage of the increased activity.<\/p>\n

Last week the FT reported that Lovable had received interest that would value the company at more than $4bn<\/a>, double the price at which it raised funding just weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s n8n has seen its valuation surge <\/a>to more than $2bn, up from \u20ac300mn in March, in a new round set to be led by Accel, people familiar with the matter said. Amsterdam-based Framer, a no-code website builder start-up, has also raised new funding at a $2bn valuation in recent weeks in a deal led by Meritech and Atomico.<\/p>\n

Defence tech groups<\/a> have also attracted attention, buoyed by European governments\u2019 commitments to increase their defence spending in the face of the US\u2019s shift away from the continent.<\/p>\n

\"Bar<\/p>\n

In Germany, drone start-up Quantum Systems is discussing a fundraiser at up to a \u20ac3bn valuation, according to people familiar with the matter, while the UK\u2019s Cambridge Aerospace has raised $100mn, that would value it at around $400mn. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, UK fintech group Revolut this week allowed its employees to sell some shares at a $75bn valuation, nearly double its level last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the midst of a seismic technological shift globally\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. the UK & Europe is fortunate to be home to some of the companies that will be part of that wave,\u201d said James Wise, a partner at London-based Balderton Capital.<\/p>\n

But European AI companies remain far behind US leaders in terms of both fundraising and commercialisation. OpenAI is one of the most valuable private tech companies in the world with a $300bn valuation, and is currently talking to investors about a secondary share sale that would value it at $500bn.<\/p>\n

The rising valuations and surge in activity reflect the size of the opportunity, according to General Catalyst\u2019s head of Europe Jeannette zu F\u00fcrstenberg. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are definitely slower,\u201d she said, but\u2009\u201cEurope is really catching on to this and is trying to find meaningful ways to capture some of that productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

ElevenLabs, Mistral, ASML and Quantum Systems declined to comment. n8n did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco and Melissa Heikkil\u00e4 in London<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-116651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}