Market Intelligence Report: European Industrial Resilience
Where Capital Is Going and Where the Decision Gap Remains
Europe is spending serious money on clean energy. But the sectors that actually need to decarbonise at scale, steel, cement, chemicals and refining, are nowhere near where they need to be. The capital is not going where the hard problem is.
Global investment in the technologies European heavy industry actually depends on, hydrogen, CCS, industrial decarbonisation, electrified heat, fell 23% in 2024 to $155 billion (BNEF). BNEF’s read is blunt: cost, technology maturity and the absence of de-risking mechanisms are blocking capital. Without a change, these technologies will not move the needle on emissions this decade. This report covers 126 early-stage European companies. It shows where venture and growth capital is concentrating, where it is stalling and the reality of the FOAK financing gap.
Bring it into your next team meeting and you’ll have the numbers to answer three questions that are sitting on most leadership agendas right now:
- Why are so few industrial decarbonisation projects making it from pilot to funded deployment and where is capital actually concentrating?
- Germany, the UK and France account for over half of tracked European activity; what does that mean for where the next wave of deals and projects gets done?
- Global investment in the technologies European heavy industry depends on fell 23% last year … is this a market correction or a structural problem?
