In 2023, the burgeoning field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) gained significant recognition, catalysing increased investment and drawing focus from lawmakers towards regulatory frameworks. Investor enthusiasm manifested notably within European markets, with companies in this sector raising approximately €2.1 billion across 141 deals during the year, as reported by Tech.eu.
As the trend persisted into 2024, European AI companies experienced further growth in funding, amassing nearly €3 billion through 137 deals, representing a 35% increase from the previous year. French AI companies emerged as frontrunners, attracting over €1.3 billion in funding through 14 deals, nearly half of Europe’s total AI investment for the year. Following closely were German firms, securing €910.3 million across 23 transactions, while the UK companies claimed the third position with €318.1 million raised through 33 deals.
The landscape of AI investment is poised for continued innovation, driven by evolving regulatory frameworks which are expected to fuel further investment opportunities. Among the noteworthy transactions in 2024, the report identifies the ten largest deals within the European AI sector.
Gcore, a Luxembourg-based provider of cloud and AI solutions, raised $60 million, aimed at enhancing its technology infrastructure, including the development of AI servers powered by NVIDIA GPUs.
In Germany, Parloa secured €61.7 million for its AI Agent Management Platform, which streamlines customer interactions within contact centres by deploying advanced AI agents capable of managing personalised engagements across various communication channels.
From the UK, ElevenLabs capitalised on its position in AI audio research, raising $80 million to advance its technology that generates realistic speech in 32 languages for diverse applications, thereby enhancing accessibility and creative content creation. Stability AI, also from the UK, raised an equivalent amount for its pioneering generative AI products, including the popular Stable Diffusion model, which generates high-quality images from text descriptions.
Austria's Magic.dev secured $117 million to develop its ambitious goal of creating a "superhuman" general AI capable of programming. Meanwhile, H Company, based in France, garnered significant attention by raising $220 million to launch Runner H, an AI agent focused on automating web tasks with natural language commands.
DeepL, a German leader in neural machine translation, received substantial funding of $300 million, enabling it to enhance translation services for businesses. Similarly, Poolside AI in France collected $400 million, investing in advanced AI solutions tailored specifically for software engineering.
Germany's Helsing AI, focused on defence technology, raised €450 million to bolster AI capabilities within the defence sector, underscoring the commitment to ethical AI aligned with democratic values. Lastly, France's Mistral AI emerged as a key player by securing €600 million for its open and customizable generative AI solutions designed for diverse platforms.
The considerable investments reported signify the growing recognition of the transformative potential of AI across multiple sectors and illustrate the rapidly evolving landscape of technology-driven business solutions in Europe.
Source: Noah Wire Services