Rocket Internet drives 41 percent increase in Q1 European VC investment

Rocket Internet’s aggressive investment in food delivery startups gave a big boost to first quarter venture capital spending in Europe, according to the latest figures from Dow Jones’ VentureSource.

In the first quarter of 2015, European companies raised $2.82 billion in 345 deals, a sum that’s up 41 percent from the previous quarter. Even more impressive, that investment is up 63 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Dow Jones.

At $1.78 billion, later-stage funding accounted for the lion’s share of funding. And that number swelled in large part thanks to the $546.24 million that Rocket Internet invested in building its food empire. The Berlin-based startup accelerator pumped big money into Delivery Hero and Foodpanda, among others, during the quarter.

While the numbers overall are bullish for Europe, there are some troubling signs. The amount of capital raised by European venture funds fell 25 percent from the previous quarter. And the capital raised through IPOs fell dramatically to only one-fifth of the amount raised in Q4 2014.