European start-up investment tops $60bn in first half of 2021

European start-ups raised €43.8bn in investment in the first six months of 2021, breaking the record of €38.5bn invested in all of 2020.

According to data shared with CNBC, start-ups on the continent have surpassed the record of euros invested in 2020 despite the fact that the number of venture deals signed so far is around half the amount agreed in 2020.

About 2,700 funding rounds have been raised so far in 2021, versus 5,200 last year, according to Dealroom.

The deals include the Swedish buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna, which raised over $1.6bn already this year, German stock trading app Trade Republic, which earned $900m in a May fundraise and British payments provider Checkout.com, which raised $450m in January.

Europe is now home to many unicorns but it has not reached the levels of having a company with the scale of American and Chinese tech giants.

The number of $1bn start-ups in Europe continues to grow but the number of exits in the continent is also increasing as many are bought off by larger companies.

As for stock market listings, a number of notable debuts have taken place in London in particular, including food delivery app Deliveroo, cybersecurity firm Darktrace and reviews site Trustpilot.