Bpifrance is the most active European public investor

Bpifrance joined 817 venture rounds directly since January 2021, more than the EIC Fund (532) and Enterprise Ireland (444), the next two on the list. Its estimated own investment of €3.2B is 37% of the €8.7B the ten investors put in between them, and the rounds it joined total €21.8B. It backed 17 unicorns in the period; the other nine backed 18 combined, led by the British Business Bank with seven. Deep tech is the main theme for most of the ten. Invest-NL puts 78% of its money into deep tech and the EIC Fund 73%, against 15% at Portugal Ventures and 21% at Enterprise Ireland, which back more early software and services companies. Own investment is estimated from round sizes where the investor's share was not disclosed.

Key findings

• Bpifrance leads on every measure: 817 rounds, an estimated €3.2B of its own money, €21.8B of rounds joined and 17 unicorns backed.
• Four investors each joined more than 300 rounds since 2021: Bpifrance, the EIC Fund, Enterprise Ireland and HTGF.
• Invest-NL and the EIC Fund are the deep tech specialists, at 78% and 73% of their investment.
• Five of the ten backed no more than one unicorn, so round count and unicorn count are not the same thing.