In 2025, this city was more abuzz with AI projects than anywhere else in Europe. Can it last? Lovable founder Anton Osika thinks so. He recently noted on LinkedIn that he keeps running into Americans who’ve moved to Sweden. “They love how few crazy distractions there are here. You can focus on the work of your life,” he says. So why does the city suddenly feel alive? Maybe today’s founders are just better at selling it. Tobias Bengtsdahl, a partner at startup builder Antler, points out that past stars like Spotify’s Daniel Ek or Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski rarely talked up Stockholm. “Now the AI founders won’t stop,” he told Sifted.
2025 stats
€1.97bn
equity funding
+19%
148
deal count
-6%
€3.6m
median deal size
+36%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
AI agents
Digital health
Energy management
Key investors
Stockholm
Zurich has three great pastimes: squirreling away money, blowing up snowmen (the city’s quirky annual spring ritual), and starting robotics companies. The last one is booming. In 2025, Zurich topped Europe for robotics and industrial tech deals, with startups like Mimic, EthonAI, Flexion Robotics and Chiral Nano raising from heavyweight VCs including Index Ventures, Elaia and DST. “Zurich’s core strengths — robots and industrial tech — went mainstream in 2025,” says Alex Stöckl, founding partner at Swiss VC Founderful.
2025 stats
€894m
equity funding
+22%
96
deal count
-9%
€4.3m
median deal size
+13%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Robotics
AI agents
Industrial tech
Key investors
Zurich
Spain experienced a dealmaking surge in 2025 and a good chunk of the action happened in Barcelona. The city’s 35 healthtech raises last year was no accident: investors say the government has done well to court foreign investment, particularly pharma companies, with some of Europe’s most generous tax breaks and a relatively speedy regulatory process for new drugs. “The mentality has completely changed: rounds are bigger and faster,” says Borja Solé Fauria, founder of Barcelona-based Murphy AI, which uses AI to modernise debt collecting services. “I’m seeing way more ambition around me.”
2025 stats
€1.04bn
equity funding
-3%
127
deal count
+3%
€3m
median deal size
+85%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
AI agents
Medtech
Biotech
Key investors
Barcelona
Estonia, long hailed as a European tech leader, has produced few breakout AI startups, prompting concerns it is falling behind. But other priorities are at play. Proximity to Russia has pushed many young founders into defence, turning Tallinn into Europe’s second-largest hub for defence deals last year. “If you’re measuring success by the size of large language models, then yeah, we’re losing,” says Tarmo Virki, head of communications at PowerUP Energy Technologies. “But that’s a fool’s errand. For a country of 1.3m, trying to out-compute Silicon Valley or China by building the ‘pipes’ is a waste of breath. Estonia is here to own what flows through them,” he adds — pointing to startups focused on specialised AI agents and vertical solutions.
2025 stats
€214m
equity funding
+21%
53
deal count
+29%
€1.9m
median deal size
+90%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Defence tech
Hydrogen
Cybersecurity
Key investors
Tallinn
Investor Niccolò Sanarico — author of the indispensable This Week in Italian Startups newsletter — has several reasons to believe Milan could have a standout 2026. Round sizes in Italy remain smaller than in the rest of the EU — and valuations likely are too, he notes. “But if the talent is comparable to the rest of Europe, maybe we offer good opportunities at interesting prices?” Italy is also becoming more welcoming to foreign investors, he says, pointing to an uptick in international activity in Milan. Finally, the city’s two leading universities — Bocconi and the Polytechnic University of Milan — have teamed up to build a major incubation and startup investment programme, with more than €100m to deploy at the pre-seed and seed stages. “A super-interesting source of dealflow with deep scientific and engineering roots.”
2025 stats
€857m
equity funding
-14%
101
deal count
+31%
€2.5m
median deal size
+70%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Biotech
CFO tech stack
Payments
Key investors
Milan
“When I attended defence events six or seven years ago, I was literally the only startup guy in a room of 200 military officers and established defence primes. During coffee breaks, nobody talked to each other, everything was secretive,” says Patryk Szymczak, CEO of humanoid developer SI Robotics. That atmosphere has changed dramatically. Today, the Warsaw scene takes defence tech seriously — and other sectors are rising. Large manufacturers and e-commerce players are setting up their logistics in Poland, says Tomek Kasperski, CEO of fulfillment experts Omnipack. “More than half of our pipeline now comes from the DACH region,” he adds. Bartek Jędrychowski, CEO of AlohaCamp, a platform to book stays in nature, points to another shift: “We’re seeing a growing number of real success stories — including ElevenLabs, Booksy, InPost and DocPlanner — creating liquidity for employees and giving rise to local ‘startup mafias’.”
2025 stats
€177m
equity funding
+119%
32
deal count
+0%
€3.7m
median deal size
+236%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Medtech
Payments
Robotics
Key investors
Warsaw
Helsinki is home to three of Europe’s most compelling tech companies: quantum computing player IQM, smart-ring maker Oura and satellite startup ICEYE. But its edge isn’t only technological. As mayor Daniel Sazonov recently told Sifted, one of Helsinki’s most overlooked advantages is quality of life. “I spoke to a CEO recruited from abroad,” he said. “The number one thing he mentioned was that Helsinki is a place where children can safely walk to school.”
2025 stats
€489m
equity funding
+79%
73
deal count
+40%
€2.5m
median deal size
-3%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Foodtech
Drug discovery
AI
Key investors
Helsinki
Amsterdam enjoyed a funding surge in late 2025. In October alone, 18 startups raised more than $100m across fintech, clean energy, healthtech and AI. Few Dutch scaleups are as ambitious as hotel software company Mews, which recently completed its fourteenth acquisition and raised an additional $300m. CEO Matthijs Welle admits he was initially wary of AI. “Now I’m really excited by it,” he says. His way of getting there? Booking himself a slot on stage to talk about it. “That really forced me to think it through.”
2025 stats
€2.5b
equity funding
+135%
140
deal count
+19%
€2.5m
median deal size
+25%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
AI agents
Hospitality
Data & analytics
Key investors
Amsterdam
Don’t sleep on Ghent, the CEO of newly minted unicorn Aikido Security told Sifted recently. “You can go to a bar here and leave with angel investment,” he says — so book a pint in the city, pronto. Beyond the nightlife, Ghent is also known for a growing cluster of biotech companies emerging from its universities. And the perks don’t end there: “The chocolates also hit hard,” says Mathias Celis, CEO of Ghent-based Alkmist, which has built a collaboration platform for companies.
2025 stats
€224m
equity funding
-23%
40
deal count
+11%
€2.4m
median deal size
+20%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Digital health
Medtech
AI agents
Key investors
Ghent
A no-brainer. Everything you need is here: multiple sources of IP; capital spanning angels to late-stage VCs; exceptional talent; the professional services required to scale; and multinational partners ready to collaborate or acquire. The UK government is also injecting a fresh £400m into the city to support new housing, infrastructure and business expansion. Additional funding is being channelled into the Dawn supercomputer to accommodate more AI projects. Jim Glasheen, CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, recently told Sifted that Trump’s toughening immigration policies were a “gift” for Cambridge, as the city positions itself as the partner of choice for global investors and tech companies.
2025 stats
€1.6bn
equity funding
+1%
67
deal count
+6%
€3.3m
median deal size
-45%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Biotech
Advanced materials
Quantum
Key investors
Cambridge
There are several startups worth watching this year in France’s space and aviation capital. Loft Orbital, headquartered in San Francisco but with a major operations team in Toulouse, has just won a contract to build a SAR satellite as France ramps up defence spending. For decades, the country has relied on all-weather, day-and-night SAR imagery from Germany’s ageing SAR-Lupe constellation — but developing “sovereign” capabilities is the order of the day. Sifted will also be tracking a wildcard bet: Zephalto, which aims to serve Michelin-star meals to tourists in space.
2025 stats
€332m
equity funding
+126%
16
deal count
+60%
€4.3m
median deal size
-22%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Spacetech
Defence
Robotics
Key investors
Toulouse
Home to some of Europe’s most challenging tech bets, from flying rockets to space (Isar Aerospace) to cracking fusion energy (Proxima Fusion). This week, US VC firm Voyager Ventures announced it is opening an office in the city. The dealflow is hard to beat for hardware investors, principal Matthew Blain told Sifted. “If you compared the volume of research that comes out of the Golden Triangle in the UK versus the volume of research that comes out of Munich, the Golden Triangle would dwarf it,” Blain says. “But, because of how synced up the ecosystem is, and the humble attitude they’ve taken to adopting best in class approaches to spinout terms, their conversion from research into really high quality companies is much, much higher.”
2025 stats
€2.4bn
equity funding
+7%
108
deal count
-13%
€5.8m
median deal size
+82%
Hot startups
Most active sectors
Defence
Drug discovery
Industrial tech
Key investors
Munich
Read the rest of the Sifted Predicts series
The 10 forces set to shape European tech in 2025
The 26 European startups to watch in 2026
The hottest sectors to watch in 2026
