The narrative around global Artificial Intelligence funding often feels like a single-track story dominated by Silicon Valley giants. But shift the focus across the Atlantic, and a different, highly nuanced story is unfolding. Europe is fast becoming a formidable engine of AI creation. Following the seismic impact of Mistral AI which proved that Europe could build foundational models rivalling the US, the continent’s venture ecosystem has been galvanised. Despite a general cooling in late-stage venture capital, European seed-stage funding for AI remains white-hot. However, the nature of what is getting funded has changed dramatically in just the last 12 months.
We analysed the funding dynamics of 10 recent, significant seed-stage AI investments across Europe ranging from late 2024 to late 2025 to understand where the smartest capital is flowing right now. The data suggests we have moved past the “gold rush” phase of funding thin GPT wrappers. European VCs are now deploying capital with a focus on defensibility, infrastructure, vertical specialisation, and, uniquely, “European sovereignty.”
The Rise of the “Mega-Seed” and Sovereign Capability
A defining characteristic of the current landscape is the “Paris Moment” or the emergence of Paris as the undisputed capital of European AI. VCs are bypassing traditional valuation metrics for teams with an exceptional pedigree (e.g., ex-DeepMind, Meta FAIR) who aim to build “Sovereign AI” models that respect European data privacy and cultural nuances. This has led to the “Mega-Seed” phenomenon, where companies raise massive amounts before even launching a product.
- H (formerly Holistic AI): This Paris-based startup set a new record with a massive $220M seed round in May 2024. Founded by ex-DeepMind researchers, H is focusing on agentic models that can reason and plan, signalling that investors are willing to pay a premium to ensure Europe has its own answer to AGI.
- Harmattan AI: Another Paris-based entrant, raising €25.5M in late 2024. Their focus on defence and dual-use technology highlights a growing trend: “Sovereignty” isn’t just about language models; it’s about national security and reducing reliance on non-European tech stacks for critical operations.
When AI Meets “Hard” Industries
The low-hanging fruit of marketing copy and customer support chatbots has been picked. Seed capital is now flowing into startups tackling highly complex, regulated industries where domain expertise offers a competitive moat. The new standard for success requires anchoring specialized AI models in proprietary data to solve complex, vertical-specific problems that generalist models cannot touch.
- Bioptimus: Spun out of Owkin and Google DeepMind alumni in Paris, Bioptimus raised a $35M seed funding to build the first universal foundation model for biology. Unlike text-based LLMs, this requires specialised training on biological scales from molecules to whole organisms, creating a moat that generalist models like GPT-4 cannot easily cross.
- Basecamp Research: Although their recent Series B funding was substantial, their trajectory began with a strong, deep-tech seed foundation. They exemplify the shift toward “Nature-based AI,” utilising a proprietary biodiversity database to design novel proteins for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and have recently secured a $60M Series B investmentafter proving their seed thesis.
- Black Forest Labs: Based in Germany, this team raised a €28.5M seed (and subsequently much more) to build state-of-the-art generative media models. They prove that deep technical innovation in core model architecture (like Flux) can still attract massive seed capital even in a crowded generative market.
The Critical Infrastructure Layer
In 2023, many seed decks pitched “ChatGPT for X.” In 2025, funding will flow to companies that make “X” work reliably. VCs are wary of application layers and are pivoting to the “pickaxes and shovels” the infrastructure that enables enterprises to deploy AI without hallucinations or data leaks.
- FlexAI: Based in Paris, FlexAI raised a €27.6M seed round to solve the compute bottleneck. They are building a “universal intelligence computer” that orchestrates workloads across different hardware, addressing the massive infrastructure pain point of training large models.
- Orq.ai: A Dutch startup that just closed a €5M seed in December 2025. They focus purely on the “prototype-to-production” gap, providing the governance and compliance layer that enterprises need to actually trust their AI agents.
- Minitap: A startup that raised €3.5M in late 2025 to bring “Agentic AI” to mobile app development. They are tackling the specific friction of mobile DevOps, moving beyond generic coding assistants to specialised, full-stack mobile agents.
- Lakera: This startup raised a $10M seed funding (followed by a $20M Series A) to act as the “security guard” for LLMs. Their prompt injection defence software is exactly the kind of critical infrastructure that European enterprises obsessed with compliance are buying.
The New London-Berlin Axis
While Paris dominates foundational models, London and Berlin are carving out niches in applying AI to complex enterprise workflows and financial intelligence.
- CRED AI: A London-based predictive intelligence platform that raised €12.7M seed in mid-2025. They are moving beyond simple analytics to building “business nervous systems” that connect real-world signals to enterprise decision-making.
- NOAH: Also in London, raising €18.6M seed in 2025. They are combining AI with fintech infrastructure to build compliant, stablecoin-powered payment rails, demonstrating how AI is revitalising the fintech sector.
Conclusion
The state of European AI seed funding in 2025 is robust but disciplined. The market has matured from FOMO to a sophisticated search for defensibility. If you are raising a seed round today, the “wrapper” era is over. The capital is flowing to founders who are building sovereign capability (Paris), deep scientific integration (Bio/Nature), or the critical infrastructure that makes AI safe and scalable. Europe is carving out its own lane, one that champions open-source, vertical depth, and a trust-first approach to technology. For founders who can build within these new parameters, the capital is ready and waiting.
