2025 is looking like it’s going to be the year of AI agent startups in European VC.
The agentic AI sector — which broadly means startups building large language model -based applications to perform and automate tasks without needing a human in the loop — is predicted by many to redefine how software is built and deployed.
VCs are scrambling to back players in the space. Many tell Sifted it’s one of the key sectors they’re looking to write cheques in this year, as AI agents promise to disrupt a huge array of industries from sales to customer service and legal to healthcare.
It’s a nascent sector, and while few AI agent startups have yet found product-market-fit, investors have pumped billions of euros into European startups working on AI agents over the past 12 months.
Using data from Sifted’s recent AI agents briefing, we’ve pulled out the 10 biggest fundraises for AI agents since the start of 2024 — and startups from France, Germany and the UK dominate the list.
Here are the AI agent startups which have raised the biggest rounds in Europe
Mistral — France
€600m equity and debt Series B, June 2024
Alongside being Europe’s only remaining player building foundational large language models, Paris-based Mistral is also working on AI agents. Earlier this week, it announced a partnership with US communication tech giant Cisco, to develop several customer experience AI agents for the company.
Mistral raised €468m in equity — alongside €132m in debt — from investors including General Catalyst, DST Global and Andreessen Horowitz in June last year.
Earlier this week the French tech darling announced it would invest billions into building its own data centre in its home country. Sifted also revealed that the startup was seeking out defence contracts in Europe.
Helsing — Germany
€450m Series C, July 2024
German AI defence tech darling Helsing is building an AI agent called Centaur — which will pilot fighter aircraft.
“Centaur agents are trained for the equivalent of over 500,000 hours to learn the intricacies of advanced air combat, including engagement tactics, defensive manoeuvres and creative out-of-the box approaches,” Helsing says on its website.
In December, Helsing unveiled its first attack drone, which it said would be powered by software to search for, identify and engage targets — though a human operator would remain in control.
Earlier this week the startup announced a partnership with Mistral to develop LLMs for defence.
H — France
$220m seed, May 2024
Pairs-based H burst onto the European AI scene when it announced a $220m seed round in May last year, from investors including the US’s Accel and software giant UiPath. It was founded just months earlier by a team of three former scientists at Google DeepMind — who later abruptly left the company — and a former researcher from Stanford University.
H announced its first product in November last year, an AI agent designed to automate complex tasks for businesses and developers. It’s currently in beta testing.
Synthesia — UK
$180m Series D, January 2025
One of the veterans of the UK GenAI sector, Synthesia was founded in 2017 and hit unicorn status in 2023 when it raised a $90m Series C. It followed up with a $180m Series D last month, led by US-based venture firm NEA with participation from existing investor Alphabet’s GV.
Synthesia is building a platform that allows enterprise customers to create AI-generated avatars for videos to be used in learning and development, customer support, marketing and sales functions.
In January, founder and CEO Victor Riparbelli told Sifted that part of the fresh funding would be spent on building an AI agent to help users produce videos from scratch.
ElevenLabs — UK and US
$180m Series C, January 2025
AI synthetic voice startup ElevenLabs is one of the global leaders in the text-to-voice space and launched a platform for building customisable, interactive voice agents in December last year. The tool allows users to create outbound sales dialers, scheduling agents, interactive game characters and customer support agents.
The following month ElevenLabs announced a $180m raise at a $3.3bn valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq Growth.
With the fresh funds, ElevenLabs hopes to outpace competitors like OpenAI as demand for text-to-voice applications heats up.
“Our largest potential competition is OpenAI,” founder Mati Staniszewski told Sifted in July, citing research capabilities, huge resources and vastly more funding. “They will probably also start to build more and more models in audio.” OpenAI rolled out voice responses on ChatGPT last year.
Cognigy — Germany
€100m Series C, June 2024
Cognigy is automating customer service using conversational and generative AI to deploy pre-trained agents that can handle large volumes of customer requests.
It raised a €100m Series C from DN Capital, Insight Partners, Eurazeo and DTCP in June last year.
Founded in 2016, Cognigy is one of a number of European startups — some of which are on this list — building AI agents to automate call centre and customer service tasks. The company said it had 175 customers in June last year, including the likes of Toyota and Bosch.
Parloa — Germany
€62m Series B, April 2024
Parloa is developing an AI-driven voice and chat automation platform for customer service operations. It raised a €62m Series B in April last year, taking total funding to $94m, according to Dealroom.
Founded in 2018, Parloa counts users including insurance giant Swiss Life and sports retailer Decathlon, who use its platform to automate emails and live chat communications to customers.
Sana — Sweden
$55m Series C, October 2024
Sana is developing an AI agent which can integrate with enterprise tools to automate tasks, answer queries and create an inventory of company knowledge.
The startup told Sifted that it serves around 300 enterprise customers, including pharmaceutical firms Novartis and Merck and mobility startup Voi, when it raised a $55m Series C in October 2024, in a round led by US-giant NEA. It also has approximately 20k commercial users who have signed up via the website and independently integrated Sana.
PolyAI — UK
$50m Series C, May 2024
PolyAI is building an AI voice platform for use in sectors like customer service and has raised more than $100m in funding since launching in 2017. It most recently raised in a $50m Series C, led by AI giant Nvidia, in May last year.
Back then, the startup said that it served nearly 100 enterprise customers, including FedEx, PG&E, Caesars, Marriott and Unicredit.
The startup deploys AI voice assistants to handle customer inquiries, which use speech recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning to understand and respond naturally.
Fetch.ai — UK
$40m Series A, June 2024
Fetch.ai operates a marketplace for businesses to sell AI agent services, alongside building its own agents.
Founded in 2017, Fetch raised a $40m round from Singapore-based DWF Labs in June 2024, taking the startup’s total funding to over $100m.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/ai-agent-funding-rounds/
