European Startup Funding: Weekly Roundup (May 18-22)

Jan de Vries · 2026-05-22

Welcome back to our weekly funding roundup. We track every European startup funding round so you don't have to. This week, from May 18 to May 22, we saw some serious momentum across the continent. You're probably busy building your own company, so let us save you hours of research. Below is a curated list of the most notable rounds we tracked this week. We've broken them down by stage and sector to make it easy to scan. ### The Big Rounds: Late-Stage Deals This week's biggest winner was a fintech out of Berlin. They raised a massive $85 million Series C round. That brings their total funding to over $200 million. They're building the infrastructure for cross-border payments, and investors clearly believe in their vision. Another standout came from London. A healthtech company secured $62 million in Series B funding. Their platform connects patients with specialists virtually, and they've seen a 300% increase in usage over the last six months. That's not a surprise given the current climate.  ### Early-Stage Action: Seed and Series A Seed rounds were hot this week. We tracked 14 seed deals averaging around $2.5 million each. The sectors spanned everything from AI-powered logistics to sustainable fashion. Here are a few that caught our eye: - A Paris-based startup building a carbon accounting tool for small businesses raised $3.1 million. - A Stockholm team working on autonomous delivery robots secured $4.5 million. - An Amsterdam company using machine learning to optimize warehouse layouts raised $1.8 million. Series A rounds were equally active. We saw 8 deals with an average ticket size of $12 million. The most interesting one? A Barcelona startup that uses computer vision to detect defects in manufacturing. They raised $15 million. ### Sector Spotlight: Climate Tech Climate tech continues to dominate. This week alone, we tracked $120 million in funding for European climate tech startups. That's roughly 35% of all the money raised this week. One company in particular stands out. A Copenhagen-based startup that turns agricultural waste into biodegradable packaging raised $28 million. They're already working with major food brands across Europe. > "The European ecosystem is maturing fast. We're seeing more capital flowing into deep tech and climate solutions than ever before," says Jan de Vries, our E-commerce Consultant. ### The Numbers at a Glance Let's look at the raw data for this week: - Total funding tracked: $340 million - Number of rounds: 38 - Average round size: $8.9 million - Most active country: United Kingdom (12 rounds) - Fastest growing sector: Climate tech (up 45% from last month) ### What This Means for Founders If you're raising money right now, here's the reality. Investors are still cautious, but they're writing checks for the right teams. The bar is higher than it was a year ago. You need to show real traction, not just a pitch deck. But here's the good news. If you have a solid business model and a clear path to profitability, there's capital available. Especially if you're in climate tech, fintech, or healthtech. ### The Week Ahead We'll be back next week with another roundup. In the meantime, keep building. And if you want to see the full list of every round we tracked this week, including details on the investors and terms, that's available for CLUB members only. If you're already a member but don't see the content of this article, please login here. If you're not a CLUB member yet, but you'd like to read members-only content like this one, have unrestricted access to the site and benefit from many additional perks, you can sign up here. Thanks for reading. See you next week.