European startup funding to decrease a difference by nearly 40% as tech rout persists

June 7, 2023: Investment into European tech businesses is set to decrease another 39% this year, according to data from venture capital firm Atomico, as the pain in global tech continues.

Funding for Europe’s venture-backed startups is forecast to decline from $83 billion in 2022 to $51 billion in 2023, Atomico said.

That was largely down to a retreat from U.S. investors. American funds have previously been a significant driver of funding activity in Europe, and several notable VC funds in the U.S. have set up shop in London to increase their investments in the region.

The further drop in funding in Europe follows a brutal year for the technology industry the previous year; investment for private tech startups in Europe declined 22% to $83 billion in 2022 from $106 billion in 2021, Atomico.

The report is a scaled-down, mid-year update from the London-headquartered fund, which has backed companies including Stripe, Klarna, and Graphcore.

Atomico said there were signs of “resilience” in Europe’s tech industry, including the overall value of public and private companies regaining the $3 trillion mark it attained in 2021.

Meanwhile, early-stage firms have seen their funding reduced by less than their later-stage counterparts, Atomico said, with funding for companies raising sub-$15 million round slipping to $8.2 billion in the first half of 2023, down from $10.3 billion in the same period a year ago.

Later-stage firms are expected to account for 93% of the overall $28 billion loss in investment between 2022 and 2023, Atomico said.

Technology firms have come under massive strain over the last year-and-a-half, with companies being pushed to prioritize profitability over growth at all costs as investors reevaluate the sector.

Once highly costed technology firms have seen their shares come under pressure from international factors, including Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and tighter monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve and different central banks have raised interest rates and pulled back on pandemic-era stimulus to stave off soaring inflation. That’s prompted investors to break their positions on lossmaking tech firms, whose values generally rest on the expectation of future cash discharges.