CEE startups raise over €510M across 148 VC deals in Q3 2025 – Vestbee report

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CEE startups raise over €510M across 148 VC deals in Q3 2025 – Vestbee report

Global venture funding continued its rebound in Q3 2025, reaching $97 billion, with nearly half flowing into AI startups. Europe maintained steady growth at $13.1 billion, driven by strong early-stage activity, while CEE markets secured over €510 million across 148 deals. Vestbee has presented VC funding in CEE report — Q3 2025.

AIN shares key takeaways from the report below:

Global VC investment trends

Global venture funding rebounded in Q3 2025, reaching around $97 billion — a 38% year-over-year increase and the fourth consecutive quarter above $90 billion. That’s up from 70 billion a year earlier and slightly higher than the 92 billion reported in Q2.

Over 30 percent of all venture dollars in Q3 went into rounds of 500 million or more, with 18 companies alone capturing a third of global investment. The biggest checks went to headline-making AI players like Anthropic, which raised a staggering $13 billion, xAI, which raised $5.3 billion, and Mistral AI, which raised $2 billion.

Q3 CEE report

AI remained the dominant global investment theme in Q3, attracting around $45 billion — 46% of all venture funding, with Anthropic securing nearly a third of that total. Hardware followed with $16.2 billion across robotics, semiconductors, quantum, and data infrastructure, while healthcare and biotech raised $15.8 billion. Fintech brought in another $12 billion. 

The US continued to lead globally, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all VC activity.

European venture landscape

European startups raised $13.1 billion across more than 1,000 deals in Q3 2025, reflecting a 22% year-over-year growth and stable quarterly performance. Central and Eastern Europe’s startups raised over €510 million across 148 funding rounds in Q3 2025. 

  • Late-stage funding surged 66%, while early- and seed-stage funding remained stable, supporting a healthy pipeline of startups. The US remained the dominant player, accounting for nearly two-thirds of global venture capital.

  • Early-stage investments dominated, accounting for 60% of total funding, driven by strong interest in deep tech, biotech, and AI, with major rounds led by Paris-based Mistral AI and London’s Nscale. While growth-stage funding accounted for just 9% of global late-stage activity, seed funding remained robust at $1.7 billion.

European startups raised $13.1 billion across more than 1,000 deals last quarter, flat compared to Q2 but up 22 percent year over year, according to Crunchbase. Early-stage funding made up about 60 percent of that total, driven by strong momentum in deep tech, biotech, and AI applications.

AI also remained one of Europe’s brightest spots, attracting roughly $5.2 billion, about 40% of total regional funding, up more than double from a year ago.

Funding trends across stages

  • Growth-stage funding totaled around $5.4 billion across 75 deals, accounting for only 9% of global late-stage venture activity — a smaller slice than other regions.

  • Early-stage investment grew 31 percent year over year, reaching $6.1 billion across more than 250 deals.  Seed-stage funding reached $1.7 billion across 745 rounds, reflecting 18% of global seed allocation and solid activity across energy, AI, biotech, and robotics. Top rounds went to Finland’s IQM Quantum Computers, Belgium’s Aerospacelab, and the UK’s materials science startup CuspAI.

VC investment trends in CEE

In the third quarter of 2025, startups across Central and Eastern Europe completed 148 publicly reported funding rounds, collectively raising over €510 million. Monthly activity held relatively steady, ranging from 31 to 54 rounds.

  • At the country level, Poland, Estonia, and Ukraine led activity with 39, 25, and 24 deals, accounting for nearly 60% of all transactions and about 40% of total capital raised. 

CEE Q3 report

Read more: European VC funding holds at $12.6B as CEE startups raise €640M in Q2 2025 – Vestbee report 

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https://en.ain.ua/2025/12/02/q3-2025-vestbee-report/