Atomico: European startups are likely to receive a record $34.3B in VC investments in 2019, with US-based VCs accounting for about $10B
Alex Konrad / Forbes : Tweets: @kateclarktweets , @jasonlk , @alexrkonrad , and @indexventures . Thanks: @alexrkonrad Tweets: Kate Clark / @kateclarktweets : “More money is flowing into European tech than ever, and it's increasingly coming from venture capital's elite U.S. firms” (@sequoia, @benchmark). https://www.forbes.com/... @jasonlk : Glad I started early @pipedrive @algolia @Talkdesk @showpad @Automile @gorgiasio etc Next, I think India and downtown San Jose are the next big SaaS markets mostly missed by U.S.-based VCs https://twitter.com/... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Good morning from Berlin, where we've just launched our #ForbesMidas Europe list for 2019. For this year's feature, I dove into a trend I've been hearing a lot about: name-brand U.S. venture capitalists spending more time in Europe hunting for deals. https://www.forbes.com/... @indexventures : After @Adyen and @Spotify IPOs, Silicon Valley sets its sights on Europe. Now not only a hotbed for a new generation of global startups, but also the most important int'l market for US tech companies (and VCs too). Welcome to Europe! #ForbesMidas https://www.forbes.com/... Thanks: @alexrkonrad
Context & Ripple Effects
Atomico's year-end projection lands mid-arc in a story that had been building quietly: elite US firms — Sequoia and Benchmark get name-checked in the coverage — were no longer treating Europe as a scouting trip but as a core allocation. The PitchBook deal-count series makes the trajectory explicit: European rounds with US participation grew from 359 deals worth €2.7B in 2011 to 1,434 deals worth €50.8B by 2021.
The $34.3B figure matters because it predates the 2021 blowoff — CB Insights counted $93.3B invested in European tech in 2021, up 142% YoY — meaning the 2019 'record' was really the baseline being set before US capital went from participant to dominant force.
First-order effects
- European founders gain access to US-fund-sized checks without relocating, while local funds face direct competition on valuation from firms like Sequoia and Benchmark entering their rounds.
Second-order effects
- With about $10B of the total coming from US-based VCs, European fund managers must either scale their own fund sizes or cede the largest, priciest growth-stage rounds to American leads — shifting pricing power toward founders in contested deals.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Europe's funding base becomes structurally dependent on US capital: the 2019 record scales into the $14.2B PitchBook tallies for US money into European AI in 2025, even as Atomico's own later data ($45B raised in 2024 against just $3B of IPO value) shows exits lagging far behind inflows.
The trend: US venture capital is evolving from opportunistic visitor to structural pillar of European startup funding, with each successive record resetting what 'normal' cross-border participation means.