In 1H26, global venture capital funds raised 498 billion US Dollars, already above the amount they attracted in the whole 2025, but deals dropped by 22%. In Europe, 60% of investments involve the AI sector while mega-rounds attract half of the firms resources
In 1H26, global venture capital’s investments volume is already greater than the whole 2025 figure. However, an ever-smaller number of companies is attracting the majority of resources, whilst the number of transactions continues to fall, CB Insights and PitchBook data say pointing out that the market is increasingly polarizing on AI mega-rounds.
In 1H26, startups and scaleups attracted 498.4 billion US Dollars, more than twice as much than 208.4 billion of 1H25 (+139%) and more than 470.2 billion of the whole 2025, CB Insights says. However, the round of in 1H26 amout to 13.684 and dropped by 22.3% yoy (17.601 in 1H25) as investors are increasingly selective.
The AI mega-rounds are biasing the data. In 1Q26, OpenAI raised 122 billion US Dollars (see here a previous post by BeBeez) which made 43% of global quarterly deal value. In 2Q26, Anthropic attracted 65 billion (see here a previous post by BeBeez) while Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines and Anduril also secured billions worth rounds. CB Insights says that rounds worth above 100 million US Dollars attracted 81% of the 2Q26 invested resources whilst the market keeps shrinking in terms of deals quantity.
In Europe as well the market continues to grow thanks to artificial intelligence and mega-rounds. In 1H26, venture capital investments amounted to 44 billion euros or 67% of the whole 2025 (65.7 billion). The 2026 deals in the European market could therefore be worth 88 billion euros (+34% yoy), PitchBook says. However, whilst capital increased, the number of transactions continues to fall. In 1H26, the recorded deals were 3612, while in the whole of 2025 they were 7930.
AI start-ups and scale-ups raised 26.5 billion euros in 1H26, accounting for 60.2% of all venture capital invested in Europe, compared with 37.8% recorded for the whole of 2025. In just six months, the sector has therefore already surpassed the 24.8 billion raised in the whole of last year and, according to PitchBook, is set to close 2026 with a figure almost double that of 2025.
A limited number of large-scale transactions also continue to drive the growth. Funding rounds exceeding 100 million euros account for just 1.8% of the total number of deals, yet they account for 55.4% of all capital invested, up from 46.9% in 2025. Some of the 1H26 major deals include the funding rounds of Isomorphic Labs (1.79 billion euros), Stegra (1.4 billion euros), Wayve and ICEYE (one billion euros).
The impact of AI is also evident in the sectoral distribution of investments. Cleantech raised 7.4 billion euros (+59.1% from 2025) and consolidated its position as the second-largest beneficiary of the energy transition and demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Big Data is also growing rapidly as it’s currently the fourth-largest European sector in terms of funding raised, whilst robotics, the space economy and industrial technologies continue to benefit from increased investment in deep tech.
The source of capital is also changing. Corporate venture capital, private equity funds, hedge funds, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, now account for 84.7% of the total value of investments (76.8% in 2025).
US investors accounted for 21.8% of transactions but contributed 69.2% of the capital raised (58.1% in 2025) as they are increasingly interested in mature European startups.
PitchBook also remarks that the in 1H26 the venture debt sector is worth 13.2 billion euros (above two-thirds of the whole of 2025 volume) ahead of a 26 billion all-time peak for the full year. The Artificial intelligence and cleantech sector are the main users of debt instruments to finance their growth.
