Interest in AI soars; energy and ESG remain attractive to VC investors in Europe
AI attracted strong investment in Europe during Q4’23, accounting for a number of the largest deals of the quarter, including a $486 million raise by Germany-based large language model focused company Aleph Alpha, a $434 million raise by Mistral AI in France and a $208 million raise by Israel-based enterprise AI systems company, AI21 Labs.
In addition to AI, the energy and ESG space continued to see good momentum during Q4’23, with investments ranging from Seed deals to those with larger ticket sizes — such as Sweden-based battery manufacturer Northvolt’s $145 million raise and Estonia-based energy storage company Skeleton Technologies’ s $114 million raise. Given the commitment to net zero targets and the need to rapidly scale funding in order to address the energy transition, the sector is likely to remain on the radar of investors for the foreseeable future.
