More startups, fewer funding rounds: According to Antler, startup creation in Europe increased by 54 percent between 2021 and 2025. Over the same period, the number of seed rounds dropped by 41 percent, and Series A rounds by 45 percent. The billion-dollar rounds raised by a handful of companies therefore only tell part of the European startup story.
This is the key finding of the European Founder Report 2026. For the study conducted in August, the venture capital firm analyzed data on 209 European unicorns, 551 of their founders, 4,129 Series A founders, and 81,055 funding rounds since the year 2000. It was authored by Antler partner Christoph Klink. His diagnosis: Europe is producing increasingly stronger technology companies, while access to growth capital in early stages is narrowing for many others.
Helsing and Proxima Fusion belong to the top tier
Just how rapidly Europe’s leading pack is developing is demonstrated by looking at young unicorns: In 2025, Antler recorded 14 companies founded since 2020 that had already reached a billion-dollar valuation. By the end of the first half of 2026, this group numbered 33 companies.
The report distinguishes between two types. It terms lean, AI-driven companies such as Lovable, Elevenlabs, and Legora as “Jets.” They grow rapidly in revenue and are frequently built by young founders with a technical background.
Alongside them are the “Juggernauts”: capital-intensive technology companies in fields such as defense, energy, and AI infrastructure. Antler counts Munich-based Helsing and Proxima Fusion among them. According to the report, this group is shaped by more experienced, more academically credentialed founding teams.
Across both groups, according to the study, 68 percent of founders have a technical background. For unicorns founded before 2020, this figure stood at 27 percent. In Munich, Helsing and Proxima Fusion thus exemplify the rise of European deep tech. However, the report does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about how financing is developing across the entire Munich ecosystem.
More founders, fewer investors
Outside the top tier, access to capital is becoming more difficult. Alongside Seed and Series A rounds, the number of Pre-Seed rounds also dropped between 2021 and 2025: by 38 percent. The decline thus affects multiple stages on the path from founding to growth.
The bottleneck is particularly evident in the transition from Seed to Series A. For the historical comparison period from 2008 to 2019, Antler cites an average graduation rate of 23.3 percent. This metric measures how many companies secure a Series A within three years of raising a Seed round.
For the 2021 Seed cohort, the rate stood at 20 percent, for 2022 at 13 percent, and for 2023 at just nine percent. Nearly one in four companies has thus turned into fewer than one in ten.
However, failing to secure a Series A does not automatically mean that a startup has failed. Antler also acknowledges that AI makes founding easier and that not every new company is suited for venture-capital-funded growth.
Who Is Financing the Next Generation?
Antler identifies a key bottleneck on the investor side. Since 2022, the number of institutional investors making at least three investments per year in the respective stage has dropped by 42 percent in the early-stage segment and by 45 percent at Series A. In the later growth segment, the decline was 30 percent.
The report’s explanation: Established funds are getting larger and can fund correspondingly large companies. However, not enough new, smaller funds and business angels are emerging to bet early on the next generation.
2.4 Billion Euros to Tackle the Bottleneck
Antler illustrates just how large the gap could be with a model calculation. To return the 2022 seed vintage to historical transition rates to Series A, an estimated 172 additional Series A financing rounds would be needed. The report puts the capital requirement for this at approximately 1.66 billion euros (1.89 billion dollars).
If Antler also includes missing seed rounds and the resulting additional Series A rounds that could be expected, the figure rises to roughly 2.4 billion euros (2.74 billion dollars). According to the report, this corresponds to around ten percent of the capital raised by the surveyed jets and juggernauts across all funding rounds.
The total is a model estimate for the cohort examined, not an annual funding requirement. However, it underlines Antler’s demand: along with the next mega-rounds, Europe must also strengthen early-stage financing. After all, the next generation of major technology companies needs capital long before it makes headlines for record valuations.
