The GenAI wave is just starting, the report predicts.
Just a few short years after artificial intelligence (AI) products hit the mainstream, AI now accounts for around 20pc of all venture capital funding in Europe, or around $8bn in total inflow of investments.
This is according to the French AI Report, created by early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment firm Revaia, and advisory firm Chausson Partners.
According to the report, the UK, France and Germany have led the charts between 2020 and 2024, together inviting nearly 80pc of AI-related investments, while the Nordic region trailed behind, accounting for 7.2pc of the share.
Meanwhile, in a similar vein to other European countries, only 1.6pc of the AI investments in the four-year period were made in Ireland.
VCs continue to be by far the biggest investors in AI start-ups in Series B and higher funding rounds, accounting for 75pc of all investments, while corporate investors like Google, Microsoft and Nvidia account for 16pc and public investors like the European Innovation Council account for 9pc of the share.
Moreover, US investors play a key role, the report finds, investing in nearly half of all Series C, D and higher funding rounds and 20pc of early-stage investments in European AI.
Alongside AI, generative AI investments also shot up this year, accounting for 7.7pc of total VC funding in 2024, a significant growth when compared to its 2.2pc share in 2023 or a mere 0.4pc share the year before.
The report also noted French leaders, who listed key AI challenges last year, including the debate between open-source and closed systems, agentic AI, the access to data as opposed to the usage of synthetic data as well as issues regarding governance.
However, despite the challenges, experts worldwide agree that the AI and GenAI train are showing no signs of a slowdown with new innovations and product launches made almost weekly. Last year, Atomico’s State of European Tech report found that a decreasing number of founders found raising investments harder when compared to the previous few years.
And even with China seemingly leading the race with its own DeepSeek AI, whose model it boasts outperforms the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, funding for these companies is only expected to go higher – and Europe will most likely follow suit.
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