January saw Europe’s highest number of megarounds since July 2022, as VC investment returned to bubbly ways after a tepid six months.
Sifted counted 15 $100m+ equity megarounds last month — 14 of these raises were in healthtech, climate and deeptech; January also saw management software company TravelPerk raise $200m.
Europe’s previous best month for megarounds was pre-downturn in July 2022, according to Dealroom data, when 21 companies raised $100m or more.
January represented a step-up in activity following a sluggish six months of investment. Europe had a lopsided 2024, with the majority of big deals happening in the first half of the year. The region has averaged eight megarounds a month since January 2024.
Europe’s biggest fundraising deal last month was the €400m in equity raised by German startup Green Flexibility, which builds and runs battery facilities. London-based Verdiva Bio’s $410m (€393m) Series A was the second largest, and was one of the largest Series A rounds ever raised in the region. The company is one of several in Europe racing to commercialise a weight loss drug.
Daniel Ek’s body-scanning startup Neko Health scored the third biggest VC deal in January, a €250m Series B.
Some €6.4bn was raised by European startups in January overall, counting equity, debt and grant deals, making it the best month for total funding since June 2024 and only 6.8% short of January 2024’s figure of €5.5bn. Of all funding raised in January 2025, €5.1bn was equity investment, the highest figure since May 2024.
The investors that backed the most megarounds
Sifted counted 17 VC firms that backed two or more megarounds in January.
US-based VC NEA is the most prolific backer of large deals so far in 2025, investing in jumbo rounds for London AI pair Synthesia and ElevenLabs, Swedish heat pump company Qvantum and Dublin connected medical devices company Fire1.
Investors OrbiMed, Novo Holdings, Supernova Invest and World Innovation Lab backed two megarounds apiece last month.
AI agents soar, three new unicorns
January’s other main micro-trends:
- It was a record month for startups offering AI agent tech, with 11 deals announced. For comparison, October had 10 and April had nine deals; the 2024 average was 5.3 (Sifted will publish a Pro briefing on AI agents on February 10).
- Three new unicorns were created: French spacetech Loft Orbital, Swiss crypto bank Sgynum and digital health startup Neko Health.
- Healthtech startups are the early 2025 pacesetters, raising €2.02bn over 75 rounds, edging climate tech (€1.97bn raised over 85 rounds).
- The UK is the early 2025 tech hotspot, with €1.8bn raised in January; Germany followed closely with €1.6bn.
- Battle of the German cities: Munich trumped Berlin for VC investment last year, but the German capital got off to a decent 2025, with 11 deals worth a total of €655m (compared to Munich’s four deals worth a total of €33m).
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/megarounds-january-100m-deals/
