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Americans - a16z, Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital, GV, Khosla Ventures, Headline

Europeans - Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, EQT Ventures, Atomico, Northzone, Lakestar, Partech

the market is heating up as both sides ramped up spending into 2026, with Balderton hitting 11 deals (its five Qs peak) in Q1 this year. a16z, GC, Sequoia similarly showed no slowdown.

the Americans operate at greater volume & confidence based on this five quarters sample size i.e 8 Americans firms wrote 247 deals vs 7 Europeans firms at 189. And that's before accounting for the fact that the Americans here probably represents only a fraction of actual US activity in the period.

US firms dominate the EU late-stage - GC, Lightspeed, Sequoia or a16z appear as EU cohort co-investors, while European rounds at $100M+ almost always include a US growth fund filling the round.

However, the Americans also have a higher early-stage ratio (41% seed+early vs 31% for Europeans) - that’s because the likes of Sequoia, a16z (both via scouts and accelerators) or General Catalyst are running broad early-stage European pipelines as sourcing infrastructure, with late-stage conviction reserved for their best findings. European firms are more growth-biased in aggregate.

London is the consensus as the primary European entry point for either side. Despite Brexit, despite the relative valuation premiums, and despite the political uncertainty and the country being a mess - UK companies represent 33-39% of transactions for every fund in this analysis. English language, London's talent density, and US-compatible legal structures make it the default European VC market for both cohorts.

UK + Germany = 52% of all new European portfolio companies - it's a concentration risk yet an opportunity signal for founders outside those markets. Within that, Balderton is 41% Germany-focused and Northzone 43% Nordic. Lakestar is the outlier - active in 12 countries including Ukraine and Poland. The UK concentration is also among US firms (39%), partly explained by GV's extreme British skew (73%).

public money still rules the Euro market aka sovereign capital as a local differentiator. BpiFrance, British Business Bank, KfW and NATO’s Fund are all active alongside the established players. It’s an European thing and you can look at it in two ways - either a market vulnerability or a de-risking process the American firms don't have in their home market at comparable scale or frequency.

we are on an AI supercycle - both groups are heavily skewed on AI as they have undergone the same structural market shift moving on from being generalist. Three years ago, the market was more bet-diverse (fintech, ecommerce, health, marketplaces) - the 2025-26 track indicates that we have an AI VC market, with software and AI accounting for 80%+ of sector tags across almost every investor in this peer set.

the European funds differentiate through conviction rather than scale - it is the beginning of a trend, notable from a data divergence from the above, with no American equivalent i.e Lakestar is pivoting to defence/hardware (manufacturing 13, defense 10). That means Europeans have started building a distinct industrial-AI competence, which is an evident differentiation versus the Americans - though not part of the analysis, Plural’s past 6-12 months records are also a good example in this sense.

competition is higher than cooperation - the Europeans make for a network for firms operating in the same geography targeting the same companies, clearly seeing many of the same opportunities and mostly not investing together. It’s competitive - they're all raising from overlapping LP bases and fighting for the same top Euro VC positioning, so co-investing creates a signalling problem. They're also competing for pro rata rights at followon rounds, where the real money is made, so sharing early may be strategically costly.

Europeans originate and lead early while US firms participate late and at scale - it looks collaborative on the captable, but you can also argue that the Americans are buying into a price set by someone else's conviction, with a sizeable check, and in many cases taking more of the late-stage upside. It’s lucrative - the EU firm gets validation and round completion and the US firm gets access to deal flow it didn't originate.

It’s also a structural European weakness as collaboration happens where a deal is too large for any single European firm - that's where you will see Americans dealing, and a reason for the Europeans mega funds emergence, including last week’s EU 5B scale fund.

Top 180 most active investors in Europe in Q1 2026 (free to access but need account)

Tier one European investors and their (190) Euro deals from the past year.

Tier one American investors and their (250) Euro deals from the past year.

Euro startups at YC spring 2026.

Active investors - mega deals, early stage fundings in April.

Europe’s most active late stage investors.

Europe’s most active AI investors

Europe’s most active angels

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available to our Pro customers.

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