It was to be expected. Inflation, rising interest rates, and a still very tense geopolitical context have weighed down financing in European tech in 2023. Some 41 billion euros ($45 billion) have been injected into the sector, according to the latest inventory produced by the Atomico investment fund, published this Tuesday, November 28. This is almost twice less than the previous year, at 81 billion euros, far from the milestone of 100 billion reached in 2021, and even below initial estimates (51 billion dollars, or 46.5 billion euros). ‘euros). So much for the glass half empty.
On the other hand, less alarmist, this amount still represents the third best performance in the history of European tech behind these two crazy years doped with magic money. Then, this correction would perhaps have been more significant without the massive interest in generative artificial intelligence since the launch of ChatGPT, almost a year ago now, on November 30, 2022.
“AI is the leading area of Seed funding, and has grown faster than any other area, as more companies leverage advances in LLM (large model of language)”, notes Atomico. Which gives hope, due to the different increasing stages of financing of young shoots (seed, series A, B, C, etc.), of new, even more substantial investments in 2024 as well as in 2025. But without waiting, funding rounds rather notable ones have already taken place. “Eleven AI companies have managed to raise $100 million or more this year, despite overall declining funding levels. This indicates that investor appetite to finance the sector remains strong despite a macroeconomic environment hectic,” continues Atomico.
Among them, the German start-up Aleph Alpha (500 million euros) or the French nugget Mistral (105 million euros). In total, out of seven new companies reaching a valuation above a billion dollars on the continent – the famous unicorns – four deal specifically with AI: DeepL, Helsing, Synthesia and Quantexa.
As the French and German Ministers of the Economy recently deplored, these first bets placed on AI nevertheless remain very meager compared to those of China or the United States (up to 50 billion dollars of investments private across the Atlantic). Moreover, even within European tech, artificial intelligence remains quite far in volume from “greentech”, which monopolizes 27% of all invested capital. Verkor, in France, notably blew up all the meters with a fundraising of around 850 million euros for the manufacture of electric batteries.
But it is a safe bet that the sums will soar in the years to come. The continent is indeed establishing itself as “a world leader in terms of talent in AI, indicates Atomico, with supporting figures. Over the last decade, Europe has experienced a 10-fold growth in the number of people working in AI-related roles and claims a larger resident population (120,000) of highly skilled AI professionals than the United States (108,000).” France, the stronghold of tech investment in the European Union (more than 7 billion euros) – a hair ahead of Germany -, would already welcome 18,000 on its soil, according to Atomico. A very good omen, with a view to a remontada.