EWVC January: 💸 Understanding U.S. Endowments, European VC Fundraising 2026

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European VCs have long faced a funding base imbalance. Domestic institutional capital isn’t available at the scale needed, so European fund managers are seeking Limited Partners (LPs) abroad, notably in the U.S., Middle East, and Asia.

The contrast is stark: in Europe, government agencies and public programs still supply the largest share of VC fund capital (37% in 2023, far above any private source).

In the US, by contrast, the majority of venture LP money comes from private institutions, primarily pension funds, endowments and foundations. European pension funds control trillions of euros, yet allocate a negligible portion (around 0.01% of their assets) to venture capital. In the US, this figure is significantly higher, illustrating how much more active American institutions are in VC.

For European GPs, the implication is clear – if local pensions and insurers won’t step up, look elsewhere. In recent years, several of the largest US LPs have indeed “spied opportunity across the Atlantic,” actively investing in some of Europe’s best-known VC funds. That includes a number of prominent US university endowments and foundations now appearing in the LP lists of European funds. American institutions are not just staying home; they’re shopping for deals in Europe.

U.S. university endowments are attractive LPs because of their sheer scale and mandate for high returns. Top endowments like Harvard and Yale manage tens of billions of dollars and allocate heavily to private equity and venture capital. For example, Harvard’s endowment (the world’s largest academic fund at $57B) allocates 41% of its assets to private equity (including venture), and Yale reportedly has about 50% of its $40B endowment in private equity. This is by design: these endowments pioneered the “Yale model” under the late David Swensen, shifting heavily into illiquid alternatives to capture outsized returns.

The reason is simple: They need those returns. Harvard’s endowment contributes roughly 35% of the university’s annual operating budget, and Yale’s share is similar. These funds aren’t rainy-day reserves; they must earn ~8–10% returns yearly just to fund salaries, research, and financial aid.

In other words, endowments are structurally compelled to invest in VC/PE to meet their targets. They can’t park everything in bonds at 4% and call it a day. The long time horizons and “patient capital” nature of endowments make them well-suited to venture, where payouts take years. Indeed, U.S. endowments and foundations remain some of the most devoted allocators to venture funds, accounting for an estimated 15–20% of all VC fundraising (with the lion’s share coming from the richest few universities). This reliable appetite and sophistication make them coveted partners for fund managers.

For European VCs, landing a U.S. endowment can be a game-changer: it signals credibility, brings a stable long-term LP, and often opens doors to other U.S. institutional investors. Some prominent European firms have quietly built such relationships.

Just as European GPs turn West, U.S. endowments themselves have hit headwinds. The past few years of market turmoil and policy changes have put endowments under unusual stress. Many are bumping up against the so-called “denominator effect” – when private holdings became an outsized percentage of their portfolios, some endowments need to slow new commitments until balances normalize. With few exits, endowments are sitting on paper gains but little liquidity. LPs now demand real distributions (DPI), not just high valuations, before re-committing to funds.

For European fund managers, attracting a US endowment is not a quick win. These institutions move slowly by design. First-time managers approaching endowments often vastly underestimate the timeline. The market is running 24–36 months for big endowments’ decision cycles. Extensive due diligence, multiple investment committee meetings, and cautious pacing are the norm.

The good news is that, despite recent market turbulence, endowments need to keep investing in venture. They are literally “structurally required” to allocate to VC/PE to meet their return targets.

To win over an endowment LP, European fund managers must adapt their playbooks in a few ways:

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There’s cautious optimism that 2026 could mark a reset for VC fundraising; if long-awaited liquidity materializes. Mega-IPOs like Stripe, Databricks, OpenAI, and several European unicorns could trigger a wave of distributions from 2015–2019 vintage funds, finally easing the denominator effect and freeing up capital.

European VC performance has held up well through the downturn, with funds recovering faster than U.S. peers. Some endowments are quietly rotating back into early-stage venture, recognizing this vintage may resemble post-crisis outliers like 2010–2012. But they’re more selective than ever, only funds showing strong DPI, clear edge, and institutional readiness will make it onto their shortlists. The next 12 months will test whether Europe can convert interest into capital.

Investors and founders on both sides should watch this space closely. For European GPs, the message is: cast your net wide and be prepared to meet the gold standard expectations of U.S. institutions. For U.S. endowments, it’s: don’t overlook the next Spotify or ASML being incubated in Europe; some of the best venture returns of the coming decade may lie across the pond. As the venture landscape globalizes, those who forge transatlantic ties now could reap outsized rewards tomorrow.

Lindsay Kaplan is an American entrepreneur, investor and the co-founder of Chief, a network for senior executive women.

In 2022, Kaplan and her co-founder Carolyn Childers raised $100 million, increasing Chief’s total funding to $140 million and reaching a $1 billion valuation, making it one of the fastest women-founded companies to achieve unicorn status.

👉 Find more about her here!

Vanagon Ventures, a German deeptech venture capital firm, has reached the final close of its €20 million Fund I. The fund is backed by Allocator One, alongside additional limited partners including family offices and high-net-worth individuals, senior technology executives from companies such as Apple and Google, and unicorn founders from the Munich ecosystem.

👉 Read more here.

Ananda Impact Ventures has completed a €73 million first close of its fifth Core Impact Fund, exceeding its €50 million target and representing the largest first close in the firm’s 16-year history. The fund is backed by a mix of returning and new investors, including the European Investment Fund (EIF), NRW.BANK, Investcorp-Tages, Mercator Foundation, and more than 40 family offices across Europe.

👉 Read more here.

The fund will invest in pre-seed and seed climate deep-tech and scale-up companies across Northern Europe. Footprint Fund I has already invested in 20 companies across energy, bio-solutions, AI & climate tech, circular manufacturing, the built environment, carbon removal, and food systems.

👉 Read more here.

Industry: Deeptech | Location: 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Funding: $2.2M

UK-based deeptech startup Anzen Industries has recently raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding, led by LocalGlobe and Creator Fund, with participation from strategic angel investors across the UK, EU, and US, including Konstantin von Unger and early-stage investor Cory Levy. The company, founded by scientists Amy Locks and Pedro Lovatt Garcia, develops reusable, low-infrastructure enzyme reactors designed to manufacture complex molecules more efficiently than traditional chemical synthesis, plant extraction, or fermentation-based methods.

👉 Read more here.

Industry: Healthcare | Location: 🇳🇱 Netherlands | Funding: $10M

Rotterdam’s Pan Cancer T, co-founded by Dora Hammerl, lands a €10M round led by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to finance their new generation of cell therapies for treating Triple- negative breast cancer.

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Industry: AI | Location: 🇺🇸 United States | Funding: $50M

San Francisco-headquartered AI-as-a-Service provider Runware has attracted a $50 million Series A round led by Dawn Capital, with participation from Speedinvest, Comcast Ventures, Insight Partners, a16z speedrun, Zero Prime Ventures, and Begin Capital. This follows a $13 million raise in September, and this combined funding will meet the rising global demand for high-speed media generation. The company is co-founded by Ioana Hreninciuc.

👉 Read more here.

Industry: Deeptech | Location: 🇫🇮 Finland | Funding: $5.7M

Avenue Biosciences is a transatlantic biotechnology company dedicated to accelerating the discovery and development of protein biologics, so that no life-saving therapy goes unrealized because of production barriers. Avenue Biosciences has developed a protein engineering platform that combines organic biology and machine learning to boost protein production. The proprietary method is based on years of scientific research from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

👉 Read more here.

Industry: AI | Location: 🇬🇧 UK | Funding: €11M

London-based Elyos AI has closed an €11.1m Series A funding round to expand its AI agent platform targeting the trades and field services sector. Blackbird Ventures led the round, with participation from Y Combinator and Pi Labs, bringing total funding to €13.7m since the company was founded in 2023. The startup, founded by Adrian Johnston, Philippa Brown and Panos Stravopodis through Y Combinator, addresses a straightforward problem: missed calls mean missed revenue for trades businesses

👉 Read more here.

Industry: AI | Location: 🇩🇪 Germany | Funding: €14M

Hamburg-based company building AI-powered solutions for packaging product development, has raised €14 million in Series A funding to scale its proprietary AI platform and data foundation. The round was led by Dr Hans Riegel Holding (shareholder HARIBO), with participation from 212 NexT, Symbia VC (Family Office), Btomorrow Ventures, KIMPA Impact (multi-family office), Zubi Capital and existing investors Speedinvest, Planet A, Green Generation Fund, Climentum Capital, Revent, and WEPA.

👉 Read more here.

A top-level political commitment was made publicly on 20 Jan 2026 (Davos), where Von der Leyen announced the intention to create a “truly European company structure” branded EU Inc., including the 48-hour online incorporation ambition and “same capital regime” language. What changed:

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👉 Read more about it here!

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The university will select five ‘forward-thinking’ investors to launch their own investment funds with funding from Yale.

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