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This is a comprehensive analysis of the pre-seed funding landscape in Europe, looking at the number of deals and amount of capital invested at pre-seed across Europe's leading and upcoming ecosystems.
The pre-seed stage represents a critical moment in a startup's journey – that first institutional round of funding that can make or break a company's future. Yet, despite its importance, this stage has traditionally received less attention and analysis than later funding rounds. This is also largely due to the lack of data available at this stage.
As the UK's largest dedicated pre-seed fund, we've had a front-row seat to the evolution of early-stage funding. We've witnessed how companies that we now recognise as unicorns – Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Synthesia, and ElevenLabs – all began with modest pre-seed rounds that would fall under today's definition of pre-seed (£2.5m or less).
In "Zero to One," we define pre-seed as the first round of funding a company raises, specifically:
Through our analysis, we aim to demystify the pre-seed landscape, providing valuable insights for founders, investors, and the broader European ecosystem. We believe that by increasing the number of funded companies building products, teams, and businesses at this formative stage, we can collectively increase the number of unicorns that emerge from Europe – with the UK continuing to lead the charge.
Our research has uncovered several insights that demonstrate not only the power of pre-seed funding as the ideal launchpad for ambitious founders, but also Europe’s continued growth, and the UK's unrivalled position as Europe's pre-seed powerhouse:
In a time when negativity and anti-European sentiments often dominate our feeds, we're proud to bring a refreshing wave of optimism for the UK and Europe – particularly for those considering the pivotal first steps of their entrepreneurial journey.
This report wouldn't have been possible without the contributions of several of our friends within the industry. We’d like to extend special thanks to:
We also want to thank the team at Seedlegals, who helped provide various data sets that brought insights to this report.
If you're interested in understanding what drives success at this formative stage, how pre-seed definitions have evolved, or why the UK has established itself as the premier destination for ambitious founders taking their first steps - you’ve come to the right place.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and continue the conversation about how we can collectively strengthen Europe's early-stage startup ecosystem, with the UK continuing to lead the way in empowering the next generation of unicorns through strategic pre-seed investment.
For more information on the report, or if you'd like to use any of the data, please feel free to get in touch with Lauren (at) conceptventures.vc
