Europe’s quantum startups need capital for the scale-up phase

Investment in quantum technology startups reached €11.15 billion ($12.6 billion) in 2025, up 6.3 times from 2024, according to McKinsey’s 2026 Quantum Technology Monitor. Public sources, including governments, sovereign wealth funds and universities, supplied only 3% of that capital, down from roughly one-third in 2024.

Public money covered roughly three cents of every euro invested. Venture and private equity investors, corporates and public markets supplied most of the rest, according to McKinsey.

Brooks separates two funding jobs. “European quantum founders need both, but one does not automatically provide the other.” One kind of money builds the ecosystem; the other finances the company.

Why public commitments do not equal startup capital

Public programmes can pay for laboratories, university research, testbeds, training and shared infrastructure. Those commitments do not automatically reach a startup’s balance sheet.

The distinction matters because a national quantum programme can improve the conditions for building a company while financing very little of the company itself. Founders should not treat a government’s total pledge as a measure of the private capital available to scale it.

Brooks writes: “I would look first at how the programme is allocated and who can receive the money.” For founders, the practical question is where a programme intends to send its money, not simply how much a government has committed to quantum.

Brooks’s allocation test separates three routes:

• University research and national laboratories strengthen the technology base without putting programme money on a startup’s balance sheet.
• Shared infrastructure and training can lower barriers for companies across the ecosystem, but they differ from capital a founder can deploy directly.
• Direct company funding gives founders money they can use to finance the business itself.

Public support still underpins the sector, and these programmes build the research base, specialist talent and infrastructure that quantum companies need. The problem starts when founders count ecosystem commitments as a measure of company financing available.

What does this change for European founders?

European founders face a harder task than matching one country’s headline pledge against another’s. They need to know which part of a programme reaches the balance sheet, what it can fund and what remains after it runs out.

Europe has a strong research base. The MIT Quantum Index estimates that the EU produces 22% of global quantum-computing publications and 17% of the field’s top 10% most-cited papers. The UK and Germany each account for 6% of those highly cited papers.

The talent pipeline is also expanding. The MIT Quantum Index’s 2025 report counted 69 master’s degrees worldwide with “quantum” in the degree name, including 12 in Germany and 10 in the UK.

That depth helps founders start companies and develop the underlying technology. It does not remove the need to finance the company as it moves toward systems ready for wider commercial use.

Why research strength does not guarantee scale-up capital

Venture and private equity investors remain important, but corporate and public-market capital have become significant parts of the sector’s financing. Quantum companies can spend years moving from research toward commercially usable systems, and the funding environment changes during that journey.

Country rankings can mislead founders. A large public commitment can make one market a better place to develop quantum technology without necessarily making it easier to raise the private capital required to scale a company.

European founders do not need to predict every source of future capital at the beginning. They do need to know which parts of the development plan the available money covers, and which parts it does not.

Europe’s next quantum companies will need financing plans that cover the road from research to systems ready for wider commercial use. Founders should know which money reaches the balance sheet, what it funds and what remains after it runs out.