While Europe is often lauded for its robust science, late-stage investment has historically been challenging to secure. Yet speakers at the 2026 Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) Europe conference taking place in Cologne 9–11 November argue that while capital is increasingly concentrated in larger funding rounds, early-stage Series A may be being neglected.
The emergence of large venture capital (VC) companies raising hefty funds for late-stage clinical development was pinpointed as “the big change” in the European VC scene by Edwin Moses, chairman of NanoSyrinx, LabGenius, and Avantium.
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While he described this as fantastic, Moses also identified a dearth of early-stage financing. Preclinical stage biotechs are “really scrambling around” for money, which wasn’t the case previously, he explained.
Jeremy Levin, executive chair of Ovid Therapeutics, described the current tendency for European VCs to prioritise late-stage assets as “effectively investing in the past”. Meanwhile, China is “investing in the future”, cementing itself as a source of novel assets five years down the line, he added.
There is a misconception that there is a lot of money for early-stage rounds, whereas in reality this is in decline, noted Lovisa Backenmar, partner at Eir Ventures, in another session. In 2026, biotech fundraising rounds in Europe over €100m increased by 25% while those under €15m decreased by 25%, she said.
Juri Bach, senior investment manager at HTGF added that these figures reflect what he observes within his company portfolio, where raising a €20m-€30m round for a more advanced company is easier than smaller early-stage investment.
In an effort to pinpoint the rationale for current VC strategy, Moses noted that later-stage assets are easier to value and relatively derisked as they progress through clinical development.
Moses also drew attention to Netherlands-headquartered VC Forbion for its dedicated early-stage investment offshoot Biogeneration Ventures (BGV), calling on other investors to follow suit. He encouraged big VCs to set up business arms focused on providing seed and early-stage capital, populated with the right individuals.
Investors from early-stage VCs identified Series A funding as a particular pain point for biotechs in Europe. Rabab Nasrallah, partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, argued that there is an abundance of angels and seed and pre-seed company creation, as well as later-stage funding coming together; Series A represents a financing gap for a lot of companies.
While acknowledging that some capital concentration has occurred, Karl Nargler, partner at Sofinnova Partners, offered the counterpoint that Europe still suffers from a scale-up issue. He argued that challenges stretch across the value chain and called for greater inflow of capital from limited partners (LPs) into funds at various stages of development.
Meanwhile, Bonnie van Wilgenburg, venture partner at Bioqube Ventures, notes that US investors are investing a lot more in Europe, although still skewing more towards larger financing rounds.
Amid “radical” National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cuts in the US, academics are increasingly seeking opportunities in Europe, noted Levin. Moses added that Europe should seize the opportunity to attract biotech talent from the US but will need to address several barriers, such as salary disparities.
