And as was the case in the Q4 as well, Q1 was well above the prior five quarters by funding amounts, signaling that European venture funding may be gaining momentum.

Table of contents

• AI above 50%
• UK and France grew YoY
• Europe by stage
• In summary
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Still, Europe saw more capital going into fewer companies in Q1, with deal volume plummeting 40% year over year. Much of the decline was at seed stage (down 44%) and early stage (down 30%), while late-stage deal volume was in-line with the previous four quarters.

AI above 50%

Funding to Europe-based AI startups increased significantly last quarter, reaching $9.2 billion, or more than half of total venture funding to the region. That marks the sector鈥檚 highest proportion in a quarter on record.

The largest four rounds to startups based in Europe in Q1 were for AI-related companies. Data center builder , autonomous driving developer , and frontier lab for physical AI raised more than a billion each, and AI legaltech 鈥檚 funding totaled more than $500 million.

UK and France grew YoY

Startups from the U.K. and France raised more funding in Q1, totaling $7.4 billion and聽 $2.9 billion, respectively. Germany-based startups raised $1.9 billion, flat year over year.

France has emerged as the European leader for AI frontier labs. Last quarter, it saw Paris-based , founded by former AI chief , raise $1 billion in the continent鈥檚 largest seed funding round on record. The deal also marked only the second billion-dollar-plus funding deal for a European frontier lab, following s $2 billion round last year.

Europe by stage

In Q1, late-stage funding to Europe-based startups nearly doubled from a year ago. The largest rounds were across a variety of sectors, including AI hardware, fintech, agentic AI, productivity software, sensors, defense, e-commerce and energy.

A total of $9.2 billion was invested at late-stage across 83 deals, up 91% by amounts year over year.

Early-stage funding to the region鈥檚 startups fell from a year earlier 鈥� by around 20% 鈥� 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Early-stage investment totaled $5.3 billion in Q1 across more than 240 funding rounds. Within early-stage funding, larger Series A rounds predominated in semiconductors, energy and healthcare.

Seed funding reached $3.1 billion in Q1 across more than 790 deals. The funding total was up 50% year over year, but largely due to the $1 billion round for Advanced Machine Intelligence.

In summary

Larger rounds into critical sectors in AI drove European startup funding up in Q1. A mix of Europe- and U.S.-based investors led the largest fundings last quarter into AI infrastructure, frontier labs, autonomous systems and applications.

Overall, Europe is in-line with global trends as capital concentrates into the largest deals in sectors that are surging due to AI.

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Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, and is based on reported data. Data is as of April 2, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 小蓝视频色情网页版 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 小蓝视频色情网页版 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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led the round, which also included participation from , , and 鈥淔ortune 500 companies in Asia and the United States,鈥� according to the . The financing brings Club Factory鈥檚 to a known $220 million, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. Interestingly, its last raise was in February 2018. (I say interestingly because it鈥檚 unusual for companies to raise the same amounts in their Series Cs and Ds.)

In the fall of 2013, then 25-year-old left his job at Facebook to start Club Factory. According to the company鈥檚 , Lou 鈥渘ever expected to work in fashion, but a passion for great products and frustration with the lack of transparency in price, led him to build Club Factory.鈥�

The company claims to sell 鈥渢rending items鈥� for 50 to 80 percent less than what they would go for on other popular e-commerce sites such as Wish, eBay and Amazon. It does this by letting customers shop directly from factories it finds with its patented big data technology.

In September, KrAsia that India had become Club Factory鈥檚 biggest market. According to the publication, Club Factory had 鈥減ipped Snapdeal in terms of monthly active users (MAU) to rank third behind and ,鈥� which is based in India.

According to , Club Factory has seen more than 10x growth in the past six months for its Indian SME business largely due to its zero-commission strategy, 鈥渨here the sellers are able to transfer the cost-benefit to the users.鈥�

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The five-year-old e-commerce company became a unicorn last September after raising $200 million in a round led by Tencent Holdings and that valued the company at $1.1 billion, according to . Yijiupi also secured $100 million from . The financing brings the company鈥檚 over its lifetime to nearly $600 million. Other backers include and .

The digital retailer sells liquor and wine to offline retailers and convenience stores. But it鈥檚 diversifying as of late.

According to , Yijiupi has launched 鈥渁 new website that has two separate channels-鈥檃lcohol, beverage and packaged food鈥� and 鈥榞rocery and snacks.鈥� ”

As of last September, according to , the startup聽was operating in 83 Chinese cities. At that time, the publication reported that Yijiupi was aiming to hit a GMV (gross merchandise volume) of RMB 20 billion (or about US$ 2.83 billion) by the end of last year, up “from its more than RMB 12 billion (US$ 1.7 billion) figure in 2017.”

Overall, online retail sales in China have continued to exceed, and grow faster than, those in the United States, according to a recent referencing Chinese government data. Specifically, online retail sales in China totaled about $1.33 trillion in 2018, up nearly 24 percent from 2017, , a government agency.

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础虫颈辞蝉鈥� the $300 million figure, which The Information in March also cited when . But when I reached out to Wish and General Atlantic this morning, I got a 鈥渘o comment.鈥�

Founded in 2010, San Francisco-based Wish has now raised over its lifetime, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版. The startup is geared toward so-called 鈥渂argain鈥� shoppers looking for a deal. Its revenue doubled in 2018 compared to the year prior, company spokesperson Glenn Lehrman told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News via email this morning.

In by General Atlantic and Wish, the firms said Wish plans to use the money toward 鈥渕arketing and working capital, with plans to expand its merchant footprint in Europe and North America and improve logistics.鈥�

The company recently unveiled a program called 鈥淲ish Local鈥� aimed at partnering with local brick-and-mortar retailers giving customers a chance to pick up purchased items locally from stores.

As part of the funding, General Atlantic鈥檚 Tanzeen Syed has joined Wish鈥檚 board.

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According to issued this morning, Foot Locker鈥檚 investment is also expected to 鈥渉elp accelerate GOAT Group’s global operations.鈥�

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The funding brings s total raised 聽since its inception in 2015. Most recently, in February 2018, it raised $60 million in 聽with a pre-money valuation of $190 million. led that round, which also included participation from , and .

Foot Locker Chairman and CEO Richard Johnson said the athletic shoe retailer is always looking at 鈥渘ew ways to elevate鈥� its customer experience and 鈥渂ring sneaker and youth culture to people around the world.鈥�

These days, more and more people are opting to buy shoes online via apps such as GOAT. I have a tween who is currently obsessed with high-end sneakers so I can personally attest to the current demand in this space. Foot Locker, despite having more than 3,000 retail locations in 27 countries, clearly recognizes the value of mobile and internet channels.

“We are excited to leverage GOAT Group’s technology to further innovate the sneaker buying experience and utilize their best-in-class online marketplace to help meet the ever-growing global demand for the latest product,鈥� Johnson added.

In that press release, GOAT Co-founder and CEO said his company pioneered a 鈥渟hip-to-verify model鈥� to make customers feel more secure when purchasing sneakers from the secondary market.

鈥淔oot Locker will support our primarily digital presence with physical access points worldwide, bringing more value to our community of buyers and sellers,鈥� he said.

Scott Martin, a senior vice president at Foot Locker, will join 骋翱础罢鈥檚 board as part of the financing.

The investment is the latest in a string of Foot Locker investments in digital companies. It also recently put money into women鈥檚 activewear brand , children鈥檚 lifestyle brand , and footwear design academy . But this investment in GOAT is by far its largest yet.

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This year’s IPO crop has included marquee deals like Dropbox and Spotify, a host of offerings from China, and a number of SaaS debuts. And 2018’s IPO class was larger than 2017’s own, helping a slice of private market wealth become liquid.

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But there’s at least one more tech IPO hoping to go out in 2018. And we haven’t discussed it yet, so let’s correct that error.

Everyone, please meet Mogu.

What’s That?

A good question. Here’s how the company stacks out. Mogu, the company going public, operates the聽.聽Mogujie is an ecommerce and fashion-focused application that the 聽calls a “leading online fashion and lifestyle destination in China.”

How popular is聽Mogujie? According to Mogu, the application had “62.6 million mobile MAUs” on average during the twelve-month period ending September 30 of this year. And in the same month of 2018, Mogujie “had live video broadcasts totaling approximately 3,000 hours on a daily basis.”

I’m no mobile usage expert, but dozens of millions of MAUs and thousands of hours of broadcasts daily seems substantial. We’ll check the financials in a moment, but first let’s highlight who is helping Mogujie grow: .

Tencent owns 18 percent of the company, making it the single largest shareholder among its investors. In comparison, all executives and company directors own a combined 19.4 percent, while 11 other investors divvy up most of the rest. , , , , and along with make up good portion of its external capital sources, and therefore external shareholders.

Mogu during its life as a private company, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版.

So, how is the company doing? That’s complicated.

Why Isn’t It Growing?

Mogu is a deeply unprofitable, slowly-growing company. In the two quarters (six-month period) ending September 30, 2018, Mogu posted $71.3 million in revenue. That was up less than two percent from the year-ago period.

The firm’s revenue mix shifted during the year. Revenue from “Marketing service[s]” fell, revenue from聽 “Commission[s]” grew slightly, while “Other” revenue made up the gap left by falling marketing incomes. What is “Other” in this case? According to the company that category of top line “primarily consist[s] of revenues from financing solutions and other services.”

The slow growth posted by Mogu was not offset by profits. Indeed, Mogu posted a GAAP loss of $44.2 million before certain preferred share accretion costs are tallied. Its net loss swelled to $111.1 million with those charges included.

The firm wasn’t profitable during the two-quarter period on an “Adjusted EBITDA” basis, losing $25 million. Another provided profit metric, “Adjusted net loss,” showed a similar $27 million deficit for the six months.

Mogu wrapped the September quarter with just under $130 million in cash. When you sum its operating cash flow from its most recent two quarters (negative $38.5 million), its investing cash flow (negative $21.1 million), its financing cash flow ($1.8 million) and impacts of forex, Mogu burned through $48.5 million. That means its tank will soon be uncomfortably empty without a capital influx.

Hello, IPO. But who will want to buy Mogu shares when the company is losing so much money with effectively no growth to show for the burn? Not as many as it had hoped, it turns out. The firm cut its expected IPO raise and valuation. Deal Street Asia at around $2 billion, a third under its last private valuation of $3 billion. Mogu’s ADS to Class A and Class B share conversions are slightly annoying, but 小蓝视频色情网页版 News’s calculations yield a similar if slightly smaller figure.

What matters is that Mogu may go public raising less cash, and worth fewer duckets than it hoped.

So that’s Mogu. It’s supposed to start trading in a week. More when, and if, it prices.

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