With European VC funding down, startups are leaning more heavily on angel investors.
Between 2022 and 2024, overall VC funding in Europe plummeted from €34bn down to €21bn, with the number of firms active on the continent also dropping 30%, according to data from PitchBook.
Eager for cash and expertise, startups are increasingly turning to angels with operator experience: people who’ve built and scaled companies themselves and understand the daily grind and gripes of startup life.
That kind of support is still rare in Europe, where just 1.8% of VC partners come from an operator background — a stark and well-documented contrast to VCs over the pond. European VCs are even ditching the boardroom for startup life to gain some hands-on experience.
So who better to back your startup than an employee at San Francisco-based OpenAI? The $300bn company has more than doubled its European office footprint over the past year, opening hubs in Zurich, Brussels, Paris and Munich, and is ramping up its presence through dinners and hackathons aimed at local founders. The AI giant also offers European startups building on top of their technology 24-hour technical support and early access to new products and features, to get their feedback.
We dug through Sifted, Dealroom and LinkedIn data to find European startups that OpenAI’s operators have backed. Here’s what caught their eye:
Romain Huet — head of developer experience
Swarmia
Date: June 2025
Round: €10m Series A
Other investors: Dig Ventures, Karma Ventures, Aiven, Lifelife and Cal Henderson
Helsinki-based Swarmia is a software engineering intelligence platform to better understand and optimise developers’ work.
Lago
Date: May 2025
Round: $22m
Other investors: Y Combinator, New Wave, Script, Meghan Gill and Clément Delangue
Paris-based Lago is an open-source metering and billing system for businesses with complex charging models.
Stacks
Date: April 2024
Round: Undisclosed (angel funding)
Other investors: Perry Blacher, Paul Forster, Mark Ransford and Hanno Renner
Amsterdam-based Stacks is a tool for accounting teams to automate reconciliations, analysis and reporting.
Twin Labs
Date: February 2024
Round: $3m pre-seed
Other investors: Betaworks, Motier Ventures, Factorial and Irwan Bello
Paris-based Twin Labs builds a suite of tools to automate large-scale business operations, from generalist and domain-specific specialised agents to browser infrastructure to simplify human oversight over AI agents.
Kota
Date: October 2023
Round: €5m seed
Other investors: EQT Ventures, Northzone, Frontline Ventures, Job Van Der Voort and David Clarke
Dublin-based Kota is an insurance benefits platform for employers to better manage their workforce’s core benefits, like pensions and health insurance.
Laura Modiano — head of Europe, Middle East and Africa startups
Way Data Technologies
Date: May 2025
Round: €2.6m pre-seed
Other investors: Pale blue dot, 10x Founders, Greens, Marianne Vikkula, Miki Kuusi and Tuomo Riekki
Helsinki-based Way Data Technologies provides a data platform for commercial fleet management, drawing on intelligence from vehicle systems and third-party devices.
Origin Benefits
Date: May 2025
Round: $21m Series A
Other investors: Felix Capital, Acadian Ventures, Notion Capital, Tudor Havriliuc and Paul Daugherty
London-based Origin Benefits is a platform designed to help human resources teams better align employee perks with business needs.
Wonder
Date: April 2025
Round: $3m pre-seed
Other investors: LocalGlobe, Blackbird, Mati Staniszewski and Ammaar Reshi
London-based Wonder is a creative studio which uses GenAI to make films for entertainment and advertising.
PyannoteAI
Date: April 2025
Round: $9m seed
Other investors: Crane Venture Partners, Serena, Motier Ventures, Kima Ventures and Parento Holdings
France-based PyannoteAI is a voice intelligence platform which can identify and separate speakers in audio recordings.
Bluebook
Date: February 2025
Round: $3m pre-seed
Other investors: EQT Ventures, Y Combinator, Carles Reina and Huey Lin
Stockholm-based Bluebook develops AI agents to automate accounting work.
Imagi
Date: Undisclosed
Round: Undisclosed
Other investors: Undisclosed
Stockholm-based Imagi provides a platform and curriculum to help educators teach STEM subjects — with a focus on building students’ Python skills.
Sandro Gianella — head of Europe and Middle East policy and partnerships
Automated Architecture (AUAR)
Date: June 2025
Round: £5.1m Series A
Other investors: Planet A, Shadow Ventures, Common Magic, Concrete VC, Margarita Skarkou, Carmel Rafaeli, Dorothy Chou and Luke Appleby.
London-based Automated Architecture (AUAR) automates the construction process of sustainable houses via robots and its construction platform for homebuilders, manufacturers and developers.
Belong
Date: Undisclosed
Round: Undisclosed
Other investors: Undisclosed
London-based Belong is a personal finance platform designed to facilitate long-term investment planning.
FitWise AI
Date: Undisclosed
Round: Undisclosed
Other investors: Undisclosed
Switzerland-based FitWiseAI is a platform which transforms sports footage into interactive, reconstructed 3D content using sensor data for sports intelligence and entertainment purposes.
Jord Innovation
Date: Undisclosed
Round: Undisclosed
Other investors: Undisclosed
Sweden-based Jord Innovation turns paper-based materials into sustainable, consumable products, like tea candles and product packaging.
We will update this list regularly. Please get in touch with maya@sifted.eu if you have one to add.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/openai-angels-european-startups/
