European Deeptech Trends 2024

The European DeepTech ecosystem has shown remarkable resilience and evolution through 2024, maintaining robust investment levels despite global market uncertainties. With projected investments of €9 billion across 454 deals in 2024, the sector demonstrates sustained investor confidence following the post-COVID surge.

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as the standout segment in 2024, experiencing dramatic growth in investments compared to 2023. This surge reflects the broader global AI revolution and Europe’s growing prominence in this field. Meanwhile, Energy & ClimateTech continues to attract substantial funding, underlining Europe’s commitment to sustainable innovation.

The ecosystem remains predominantly early-stage, with pre-seed and seed rounds constituting most deals. This suggests a healthy pipeline of innovation but also highlights the need to support companies through later growth stages. France and the United Kingdom continue to lead the European DeepTech landscape, though the ecosystem is increasingly distributed across the continent.

Public entities are playing a crucial role in nurturing the ecosystem, emerging as the most active investors. This public-private partnership approach appears to be a distinctive feature of Europe’s DeepTech development, potentially offering a sustainable model for supporting deep technologies from laboratory to market.

On the exit front, while activities have been somewhat constrained, with an expected €1.7 billion in total exit value for 2024, the market shows signs of maturity. Notable transactions, particularly in Space Tech and Energy & ClimateTech, demonstrate growing interest from both European and international acquirers.

Arthur Porré, Managing Partner Avolta, November 19^th, 2024.