Key finding: of the 496 venture capital firms headquartered in Europe that invest in artificial intelligence in Gatsbie's database, 466 (94%) say they invest at pre-seed or seed. The UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands are home to more than half of them.
Founders building AI companies in Europe often ask whether early-stage money is still there. We counted. This report uses the Gatsbie investor database: more than 12,000 investor profiles built from fund websites and other public sources, including 865 venture capital firms headquartered in Europe.
Where Europe's early-stage AI investors are based
VC firms headquartered in each country that list AI as a sector and invest at pre-seed or seed:
| Country | VC firms |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 142 |
| Germany | 74 |
| France | 47 |
| Netherlands | 31 |
| Switzerland | 21 |
| Spain | 20 |
| Sweden | 17 |
| Finland | 12 |
| Italy | 11 |
| Luxembourg | 9 |
| Belgium, Denmark, Poland | 8 each |
| Rest of Europe | 58 |
AI is the most common early-stage theme, but not the only one
Among European VC firms that invest at pre-seed or seed:
- 466 invest in artificial intelligence
- 424 invest in financial services and fintech
- 411 invest in healthcare and medtech
- 329 invest in climate and cleantech
Most early-stage funds are generalists across several of these sectors, so the same fund often appears in more than one list.
Seed is the busiest stage
Of the 865 European VC firms, 749 invest at seed, 672 at Series A and 557 at pre-seed. Pre-seed founders have the smallest pool: about one fund in four fewer than at seed.
What this means for AI founders
- Look beyond your own country. Outside the UK, Germany and France, most countries have fewer than 25 early-stage AI funds. Many funds invest across Europe, so filter by where they invest, not only where they are based.
- "AI" is not a niche any more. With almost every early-stage fund listing AI, pitch the problem and market you solve, then check that the fund backs that market.
- Check activity. Only 497 of the 865 European VC firms are marked as actively investing in our data. Read a fund's recent portfolio before you reach out.
How we counted
We counted public, active investor profiles in the Gatsbie database on 22 October 2026, with firm type VC and a headquarters country in Europe (including the UK, Switzerland and Norway). Sectors and stages are Gatsbie's standard categories, taken from each fund's website first and other public sources second. A fund counts once per sector and stage it lists. These are counts of funds in our database, not a census of every investor in Europe.
Want the list of funds that fit your AI startup? Run AI matching on Gatsbie or email us your deck.