European Startup Investment Hits €43.8b In The First Half Of 2021

European startup investment reaches €43.8 billion in the first half of this year, surpassing €38.5 in all of 2020The startup sector in Europe is pulling in far larger investment than it did in the previous years. According to data obtained by CNBC, in the first half of this year alone, the European startup sector has attracted more venture capital investment than it did last year.

European startups have raised the sum of €43.8 billion ($60.9 billion) in investment between the beginning of the year and now, as obtained from the Dealroom show. This figure surpasses the total investment in startups in the whole of 2020. Investment in European startups for the year 2020 ran into a total of €38.5 billion. By comparison, 2021 has been a great year for startups in Europe so far.

According to the Dealroom show, the number of venture deals that have been signed in 2021 so far, is very close to half the total of venture deals signed in 2020. About 2,700 funding rounds have been raised in Europe so far, as against the 5,200 funding rounds that took placein 2020.

In May, Trade Republic; a German stock trading raised $900 million in a fundraise that took place in May. Klarna, a Swedish buy-now-pay-later platform has raised more than $1.6 billionin two funding rounds, while Checkout, a British payments provider, raised $450 million in a January funding round.

The rapid growth of the startup sector can be attributed, to a large extent, to the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic increased the need for internet-based services. In general, businesses had to devise new means of adapting to online methods of meeting the needs of their customers. It, therefore, means that European startups are pulling in larger amounts of investment than what used to be in previous years. Times are changing and these startups are going smoothly with the new wave.

The CEO of Checkout – Guillaume Pousaz while citing the emergence of various new financial technology companies in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, said that startups often emerge in times of crisis and when there seems to be no other way out.

“When people lose their jobs, people actually spend a lot of time at home or have to reconsider their lives”, he said to CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe during the Viva Technology conference that took place in Paris.

Startups are taking over majorly because they are meeting the challenging needs of people. Europe is already home to a handful of unicorns. On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron stated that he’d love to witness the creation of at least 10 tech companies that would be worth over €100 billion each by 2030.While Europe may have many startups that are doing great, the continent is yet to produce a company that can stand along with some Chinese and American giants.

“When there’s big transformational change in society, it’s quite often the time that you get the emergence of a lot of new start-ups. We are particularly excited for this opportunity”,Guillaume Pousaz added.

With the end of the year still six months away, the European startup sector shows a lot of promise.