Europe has no official ranking of angel investors. The best public evidence is a set of annual awards and datasets: EBAN's Angel of the Year, the UK Business Angels Association awards, Germany's Business Angel of the Year, and Sifted's list of the 25 most active angels. This guide names the recent winners and shows where the data comes from.
Angel deals are private, and a lot of them are never reported. EBAN, the European Business Angels Network, says its own figures cover only the "visible" part of the market and understate real activity, so any list that claims to rank Europe's angels by portfolio performance should be treated with suspicion. What you can do is combine named, dated sources and say what each one measures.
Who are the top angel investors in Europe?
In no particular order, these are the people and groups with a named public source behind them. Each source measures something different, so none of them is a league table.
Chris Adelsbach describes himself on Outrun Ventures' site, as read in October 2026, as an angel with a portfolio of 250 companies, mainly fintech, and says Sifted named him Europe's most active fintech angel for 2021 to 2023; treat both as self-reported, and see the fintech angels guide for the rest of his record.
Emma Blackburn won Angel Investor of the Year at the 2026 UK Business Angels Association awards, listed on the UKBAA's 2026 winners page. The award is described as recognising "the most active and impactful angel investor" backing UK start-ups.
Janne Jormalainen was named Angel of the Year at the EBAN Congress in Copenhagen in June 2025. The same event gave its Deal of the Year award to the Silo.ai exit, credited to Mikko Leino and Harry Brade.
Tobias Wittich is Germany's Business Angel of the Year for 2025, an award where only founders backed by the angel can nominate. BAND's announcement says 82 start-ups nominated 21 angels. The Germany guide has more.
Xavier Niel co-founded Kima Ventures with Jeremie Berrebi; TechCrunch reported the launch in 2010 with a plan to back 100 start-ups in two years at €5,000 to €150,000 each. A 2015 FundMe and France Digitale study, as reported by Clubic, put him first among French angels with 230 investments, most of them made through Kima Ventures, according to Clubic. That is a five-year study from 2015, so read it as history. The France guide covers the current picture.
For a ranked list by deal count, Sifted publishes "Meet Europe's 25 most active angel investors", covering the angels who wrote the most cheques in 2024. The names sit behind its paywall, so they are not repeated here.
How big is Europe's angel market?
The newest full dataset is EBAN's 2024 compendium, published in late 2025. It counts what it can see: €1,220 million of angel investment across 39 countries, down 2.8% from €1,255 million in 2023, in 4,582 reported rounds. It estimates about 47,600 angels belong to networks or associations.
Three markets lead. The UK recorded €291 million, Germany €162 million and France about €131 million in EBAN's country table. The average angel put roughly €25,600 into a round, and the average company raised about €204,900 from angels across seed and follow-on rounds. EBAN's reading is that investors cut ticket sizes rather than leaving the market.
What do European angels back?
EBAN used Dealroom data to split 2024 angel money by sector: enterprise software and marketing took 22%, fintech 13%, health 12%, entertainment 9%, energy 7%, food 6%, deeptech 6% and education 4%. If you are choosing which angels to approach, those shares matter more than any name. Sector guides in this series cover fintech, healthcare, food tech and gaming.
How do new angels enter the market?
Many join networks, and some come in through programmes run by funds. Atomico says its Angel Programme, active since 2018, has partnered with 65 angels, committing almost $10 million into about 400 start-ups, with an emphasis on groups that were underrepresented among angels. That is one way to see how fresh names reach the lists above.
How should you use a list of angels?
Check the date and the measure. A 2015 deal count and a 2025 founder-nominated award tell you different things.
Match sector and stage before you write. The average EBAN ticket is small, so many angels will join a syndicate rather than lead.
Look for a warm path in. Lenny Rachitsky's Crunchbase-based list of US angels, on which I am ranked the #1 most active angel investor of 2024, makes the same point: the best investors prefer warm introductions to cold email, and he asks readers to treat the numbers as directional.
Compare with the UK guide and national networks before you build a target list.
More background is in the angel investing section and the walk-through on finding angel investors for your startup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Is there an official ranking of angel investors in Europe?
No. EBAN publishes market statistics and awards, Sifted publishes most-active lists, and national bodies run their own awards. None covers every country or measures returns.
Q:Which European country has the most angel investment?
In EBAN's 2024 data the United Kingdom leads with about €291 million, followed by Germany at about €162 million and France at about €131 million. These are "visible" figures, so real totals are higher.
Q:How much does the average European angel invest?
EBAN puts the average ticket at roughly €25,600 per angel per round for 2024. The average amount a company raised from angels was about €204,900, and the gap between the two figures suggests rounds are shared among several angels.
Q:Where can founders find European angel networks?
Start with EBAN, the UK Business Angels Association, BAND in Germany and France Angels, which each list member networks. Pick one that matches your sector and country, then ask for a founder introduction.