The 25 Most Active AI Investors in Europe in 2026, Ranked by Rounds Led

Index Ventures led ten European AI funding rounds of $10 million or more between November 2025 and October 2026, more than any other investor by our count. Andreessen Horowitz was second with eight and Balderton third with six, but no partner at any firm appears on more than two. About three in ten of the rounds we counted named no partner at all.

Which Investors Led the Most AI Rounds in Europe?

Index Ventures, with ten. Eight of them came at the seed or Series A stage, the first two rounds of venture funding, and six went to UK startups. We checked the deals of nearly 100 active investors and counted 132 rounds that they led. The 25 firms in the table led 92 of them. Roughly three in ten of those rounds named no partner on the announcement.

1. Index Ventures (10 rounds)

Danny Rimer led Index’s biggest round, Granola’s $125 million Series C, and spoke for the firm on the $50 million seed of Inherent, a London AI lab. Hannah Seal, Stephane Kurgan and Georgia Stevenson also spoke for Index on Wonderful, Scope and Marker. Half of the ten announcements name no Index partner.

2. Andreessen Horowitz (8 rounds)

Three of a16z’s eight rounds went to Swedish startups Endra, Pit and Stilta. Four a16z partners put their names to the firm’s blog post on Endra’s $50 million Series A, and Alex Rampell led Pit’s $16 million round. Its largest European deal came in August, when it co-led the Series A of Volta, an AI cloud company that raised $300 million across its seed and Series A.

3. Balderton (6 rounds)

Balderton led more AI rounds than any other firm based only in Europe. Suranga Chandratillake also appears on two of them, Wayve’s $1.2 billion Series D and Escape’s $18m Series A. James Wise led Geordie AI’s $30 million Series A and joined its board. Rob Moffat then led a $32 million round for Duvo, a Prague startup that Index had backed at seed.

4. Lightspeed (5 rounds)

Lightspeed’s five rounds raised about $3 billion, most of it in two of them. With Sequoia, it co-led a $1.1 billion seed for Ineffable Intelligence in April. It also co-led Helsing’s $1.8 billion Series E in July, a round Dragoneer led. Alexander Schmitt spoke for the firm on RobCo and Stacks. Before that, in 2023, Lightspeed’s Antoine Moyroud led its investment in Mistral’s first round.

5. Accel (5 rounds)

Accel’s biggest round was Legora’s $550 million Series D. Harry Nelis also appears on Fractile’s $220 million Series B and Atira’s $15 million seed. Sonali De Rycker led Perceptic’s $12 million seed, and Zhenya Loginov joined the board of Viktor after its $75 million Series A.

6. Atomico (5 rounds)

Atomico’s biggest was Callosum’s $100 million seed, and its other four were smaller. Andreas Helbig led Frontier Health’s $16 million seed and spoke for the firm on Ankar’s $20 million Series A.

7. Scaleup Europe Fund (4 rounds)

The rounds this EU-backed fund led or co-led raised about $4 billion, more than any other investor’s in the table. It co-led Mistral’s €3 billion ($3.2 billion) Series D, which Samsung led, and the $400 million round that valued Lovable at $13.3 billion. Victor Englesson spoke for the fund on the Lovable deal. EQT manages the fund, which also led Tandem Health’s $100 million Series B.

8. Sequoia (4 rounds)

Sequoia led ElevenLabs’ $500 million Series D in February, and its partner Andrew Reed joined the ElevenLabs board. It also co-led Ineffable’s seed with Lightspeed and Dust’s $40 million Series B. On Edra’s $30 million Series A, which Sequoia led, Luciana Lixandru, its first partner in Europe, spoke for the firm.

9. HV Capital (4 rounds)

HV Capital co-led the $1.03 billion round of Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs in March. It also led three smaller rounds, Flinn’s $20 million Series A, Fifth Dimension AI’s $26 million Series A and Rivercell’s $25 million seed. Rivercell, a Paris startup, is building an AI model of how human cells respond to drugs, and Maxi Petho-Schramm, a principal at HV, spoke for the firm on that deal. The other three announcements name no HV partner.

10. Insight Partners (4 rounds)

Two of Insight’s four rounds were for Wonderful, an AI agent company based in the Netherlands, which raised $150 million in March and $550 million in September. Jeff Horing spoke for Insight on the first. Insight also led Metaview’s £45 million ($57 million) Series C.

Who Else Made the Top 25?

Fifteen more firms made the list, starting with Innovation Industries and Creandum on four rounds each. The Dutch deep-tech fund Innovation Industries led Axelera AI’s $250 million round and co-led the $216 million Series A of EUCLYD, a Dutch AI chip company. At Creandum, Hanel Baveja appears on two rounds, GetVocal and Cerrion.

Eight firms led three each. Among them, GV led rounds for Synthesia and the London startup SolveAI. Plural, for instance, put a different partner on each of its three, Khaled Helioui, Ian Hogarth and Carina Namih.

Finally, Menlo, NEA, General Catalyst, Goldman Sachs and Khosla Ventures complete the 25 with two rounds each. Their rounds raised more than those of other firms with two, such as Air Street Capital and Expedition Growth.

Who Are the Partners Behind the Deals?

Nine partners appear on two rounds each, the most of anyone. They were Danny Rimer of Index, Suranga Chandratillake of Balderton, Alexander Schmitt of Lightspeed, Harry Nelis of Accel, Andreas Helbig of Atomico, Hanel Baveja of Creandum, Christian Resch of Goldman Sachs and Nathan Benaich of Air Street Capital, along with Matt Murphy of Menlo on both of Lovable’s rounds.

Still, about three in ten of the rounds we counted named no partner, Helsing’s among them.

Are American Investors Leading European AI?

In the biggest rounds, yes.

Eleven of the 25 firms started in the US, and together they held 39 lead or co-lead roles, including on ElevenLabs, Legora and Ineffable. Index, founded in Geneva and run from London and San Francisco, still tops the list. Among firms based only in Europe, Balderton led the most, then Atomico. Our earlier look at the funds backing European AI counts all the rounds each firm joined, led or not.

Author: Akos Szima

See Also:

Who Owns Mistral AI? What the Company’s Own Filings Show

Who Owns Helsing? The Shareholder List Behind the $18bn Defence Startup

Who Is Jeannette zu Fürstenberg? General Catalyst’s Europe Bet

How We Checked This:

We collected equity rounds of $10 million or more in AI startups based in Europe from company and investor announcements, the tech.eu funding database and trade press, then checked the news pages of nearly 100 active investors. Startups with a European and a US headquarters count; drone makers and companies whose core product is not AI do not. We credit a firm with a round when the company, the firm or credible press says it led or co-led it. Corporate venture funds count, but companies investing directly, such as Samsung on Mistral, do not. A partner’s name goes in when the announcement says they led the deal or joined the board, quotes them for the firm, or carries their name on its blog post. Currency conversions use $1.08 per euro and $1.27 per pound. Download every round we checked, with its source (CSV).

Change log: November 4.

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This article is based on company and investor announcements and trade reports, and is not investment advice. MRKT 3.0 has no commercial relationship with any company named above.