European AI Funding & Ecosystem Dynamics

European AI startups raised $23B in H1 2026. Scaleup Europe Fund €5B first investment in ICEYE. CEE Q2 funding up 13% excluding outliers; US funds moving to seed/Series A in Poland. Austria's Startup & Scaleup Fund €100M anchor. Compute capacity concerns (Nathan Benaich). New data: European seed-to-Series A conversion rate is 1-in-4, with a 4.5x gap between top and bottom quartile VCs, highlighting investor quality as a key factor.