49 firms, real portfolios, and what they are backing in 2026. The premier 15 ranked, the rest mapped from London to Warsaw, Helsinki to Lisbon. Filter by theme, or tap a city to see who invests from there.
Read this first
This is not a returns scoreboard. European VC fund returns (IRR, DPI) are almost never public, so we do not invent them. The premier 15 are ordered on what you can check: firepower, exits, portfolio unicorns. The rest are a directory, not a forced ranking. The honest read on returns is at the bottom.
§ where the money sits
The activity map
Every firm in this piece, plotted by headquarters. Bubble size is the number of firms based in that city, so London, Prague and Warsaw all read large. Tap a bubble for an ordered list of the firms based there, then read the full detail below.
1 firm 3 firms 6 firms
Bubble size is firm count, not capital. London's seven firms manage many times what Prague's or Warsaw's six do. The map shows where firms cluster. The returns section shows why the money is still concentrated.
§ the ranking + directory
Who is who, and who backs what
Filter everything by what firms back. The premier 15 keep their ranking (a guide, ordering within a tier is close); the wider field is grouped by region, not force-ranked, because you cannot honestly rank a €50m seed fund against index on returns that do not exist publicly.
Filter by what they back
§ the premier tier
The top 15, ranked
Tap any firm for its full record: portfolio, AUM, exits, what it backs now, and why it sits where it does.
§ the wider field
The regional directory
34 more firms that matter, by region. Prague and Warsaw still field six each. London's directory adds Connect on top of the six premier firms. DTCP is Hamburg-rooted, with a Copenhagen office planned for 2027, not open.
§ what they are backing now
The 2026 themes
Where European venture dollars actually went in 2025. Each figure is sourced and worth confirming against the primary report.
§ the honest read on returns
Why there is no clean returns number
How this ranking is built
§ references
Sources
Every figure is numbered to its source. Tap a number in the piece to jump here.
show all 123 sources
1TechCrunch (31 jul 2026, index $2bn across three funds)
108Connect Ventures (23 Sep 2026, Fund V first close $55m toward $80m) https://www.connectventures.co/opinions/announcing-connect-fund-v
109DTCP (24 Sep 2026, Defence Fund I first close €455m; Copenhagen office 2027) https://www.dtcp.capital/news-and-insights/detail/defence-first-close
110Balderton (22 Sep 2026, led Spott $21m Series A) https://www.balderton.com/news/spott-raises-21m-series-a-to-build-the-global-ai-native-operating-system-for-recruitment-agencies/
111Hadrian (6 Oct 2026, $40m, HV Capital follow-on) https://hadrian.io/blog/hadrian-40m-raised-to-tackle-the-ai-hacking-cyber-security-crisis
112EU-Startups (6 Oct 2026, Procuros €20m Series A, Creandum follow-on) https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/10/hamburgs-procuros-raises-e20-million-series-a-to-build-ai-native-infrastructure-for-autonomous-b2b-trade/
113Duvo (14 Oct 2026, $32m Series A, Balderton lead) https://www.duvo.ai/blog/duvo-raises-32-million-series-a-balderton-capital
114Scarlet (12 Oct 2026, $50m Series B, Headline lead) https://www.scarlet.cc/blog/scarlet-s-50m-series-b-building-a-global-ai-certification-body
115Tech.eu (15 Oct 2026, Rabot Energy $50m Series B, HV follow-on) https://tech.eu/2026/10/15/rabot-energy-secures-50m-to-transform-homes-into-a-virtual-power-plant/
116NATO Innovation Fund (13 Oct 2026, Warsaw branch) https://www.nif.fund/news/nato-innovation-fund-deepens-presence-in-poland-to-accelerate-technology-adoption-across-central-and-eastern-europe/
117Tech.eu (15 Oct 2026, Holo €5m seed, Market One lead, Vilnius) https://tech.eu/2026/10/15/vilnius-based-holo-raises-eur5m-to-bring-ai-powered-marketing-to-small-businesses/
118Pigment newsroom (21 Oct 2026, $250m Series E at $2.3bn, Scaleup Europe Fund lead) https://www.pigment.com/newsroom/pigment-raises-250m-series-e
119Tech.eu (22 Oct 2026, Seaya Nova €600m first close) https://tech.eu/2026/10/22/seaya-raises-eur600m-for-new-growth-fund-to-back-europes-next-global-tech-leaders/
120TechCrunch (20 Oct 2026, Blackwall $100m Series C at $2.2bn, AVP lead) https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/blackwall-quadruples-valuation-to-2-2b-as-websites-wrangle-an-increasingly-crowded-internet/
121Startupticker (22 Oct 2026, Enact Intelligence $30m pre-seed) https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/physical-ai-company-enact-intelligence-emerges-from-stealth-with-30m
122Imperial College London (27 Oct 2026, Machenta $40m seed, Creandum and Union Square Ventures) https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/articles/2026/imperial-ai-spinout-machenta-raises-40-million-to-make-robots-instant-learners/ and https://creandum.com/stories/backing-machenta/ and https://www.usv.com/writing/physical-vibe-coding-our-investment-in-machenta
123Nevis (Oct 2026, $70m Series B, EQT Ventures lead) https://www.neviswealth.com/blog/nevis-raises-70m-series-b/ and https://stories.eqtventures.com/articles/the-ai-operating-system-for-wealth-advisors-why-we-led-nevis-70m-funding-round
how current is this. figures were gathered mid 2026 from firm sites and fund announcements plus aggregators (dealroom, tracxn, pitchbook, crunchbase) and named reporting (sifted, techcrunch, cnbc, vestbee, eu-startups). fund sizes, aum and exit values shift constantly and many are approximate. before you rely on a specific number, confirm it against the named source. portfolios list real holdings but are not exhaustive. this is an editorial ranking, not investment advice.