Hitting the breaks: VC funding of European mobility startups drops by 30 percent

European VC investors hit the breaks in 2024 when it comes to mobility startups – although self-driving vehicles remain a hot item.

VC funding into the mobility sector – which includes electric vehicles and shared transportation solutions – fell to about €5.8b in 2024. That is a 30 percent drop from the previous year and more than a 50 percent decrease compared to the peak years of 2021 and 2022.

The figures are published in the State of European Mobility Startups 2024 report from Via ID, the venture capital arm of Mobivia, and Dealroom.

"Macroeconomic and regulatory uncertainties are slowing down fundraising, especially in the early stage," Romain Lafitte, managing director of venture capital at Via ID, writes in the report. "Despite the challenges, the sector’s potential remains immense. Electrification, AI, data and decarbonisation imperatives are reshaping the mobility landscape."

Some of other insights in report include:

While VC funding fell, debt financing rose to record levels

EV batteries are getting a smaller share of investments

EIT Urban Mobility remained the most active investor in the sector

Female founders are still rare in mobility startups

EV batteries get less investment

Late-stage investment rounds saw the biggest drop in funding, while the interest in EV batteries and charging technologies also seemed to wane.

EV batteries and charging only accounted for less than 25 percent of VC investments into mobility startups in 2024, having received more than half of all funding the previous year.

However, autonomous vehicles and sustainable aviation bucked the trend. Autonomous mobility funding reached a record high of more than €1.1b in 2024, although that was mainly due to a mega round for Cambridge based Wayve – which emerged as the only European unicorn in the mobility sector in 2024.

Meanwhile, the SaaS sector nearly tripled its share of total investments, going from 14 percent in 2023 to 38 percent last year.

Debt financing on the rise

While VC investments fell, debt financing also reached record levels – nearly tripling to €8.6b. However, that included a €4.8b loan for troubled Swedish battery maker Northvolt.

The most active investor in the sector was once again the EU-funded EIT Urban Mobility, which was involved in 28 investment rounds in 2024. That was nearly twice as many as the second most active investor, French public sector investment bank Bpifrance, which was involved in 15 rounds.

EIT Urban Mobility has made a total of 135 investments since 2019.

"We will continue this in 2025 while targeting larger investment rounds going forward," says Fredrik Hånell, Director of Impact Ventures at EIT Urban Mobility. 

Female founders are still massively underrepresented in the mobility sector. Only 4 percent of all funding went to teams with at least one female founder. That’s up from just 2 percent in 2023, but still well below the European average of 10 percent, the report says.