PitchBook: the number of European VC deals with US investor participation rose from 359 deals totaling €2.7B in 2011 to 1,434 deals worth €50.8B so far in 2021
- Veteran investor Alex Ferrara, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, which backed companies like LinkedIn and Pinterest … Source: PitchBook . Tweets: @alexferrara , @ryan_browne_ , and @sam_l_shead Source: PitchBook : European Venture Report Tweets: Alex Ferrara / @alexferrara : The rumors are true! My family has moved to London to focus 110% on early stage Europe SaaS investing. I'm joining my colleague @GroovyyDhruvy. Also, I'm apparently now considered a “veteran investor”.😬🤫 https://www.cnbc.com/... Ryan Browne / @ryan_browne_ : From Bessemer to General Catalyst, America's biggest VC firms are expanding into Europe to capitalise on the continent's booming startup scene. https://www.cnbc.com/... Sam Shead / @sam_l_shead : NEW: US VCs are continuing to move in on Europe after several start-ups like Hopin and Klarna saw their valuations soar. Bessemer has sent one of its top VCs from New York to London, while General Catalyst and Lightspeed have beefed up teams in the city https://www.cnbc.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a decade-long arc in the related coverage: Atomico's record $34.3B European VC year in 2019 already flagged US capital as a growing share of the market, and the PitchBook numbers here make it structural — deal count with US participation quadrupled since 2011 while value grew nearly twentyfold to €50.8B. The human signal matches the data: Bessemer's Alex Ferrara relocating to London for early-stage European SaaS puts a named partner behind what rivals like General Catalyst and Lightspeed are already doing.
It also sets up the later chapters in this corpus: CB Insights' $93.3B European tech total for 2021 shows how much of that year's boom US money helped inflate, while PitchBook's later finding that 66% of European VC funding came from abroad by 2024 reads as the endpoint of the dependence this article documents.
First-order effects
- European founders gain access to US-scale checks without relocating, and Bessemer's London move means its SaaS sourcing now competes directly with local seed funds on their home turf.
Second-order effects
- European VCs face price competition from US firms bidding up rounds they would previously have led alone, pushing them toward earlier entry or sector specialization to defend allocation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds toward the 2024 picture of majority-foreign funding, European venture becomes structurally priced and exit-oriented off US capital markets — with the noted absence of a from-scratch €100B+ European company in 30 years as the open question hanging over that model.
The trend: European startup funding is consolidating around US-sourced capital, with American firms shifting from cross-border checks to permanent local presence.