EC Partners with Private Investors to Establish Scaleup Europe Fund

The European Commission brought together top-tier private investors from across Europe to jointly express their intention to establish the Scaleup Europe Fund. The EC said that the new, multi-billion-dollar fund will invest in the most promising European companies in strategic deep tech areas.

By joining forces with the potential founding investors, the EC moves ahead on the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy aimed at building a dynamic and competitive startup and scaleup ecosystem across Europe. The Scaleup Europe Fund responds to the urgent need for the EU to boost investments in scaleups and close the gap with global leaders.

As highlighted in the Draghi report, the continent's ability to scale innovative companies is crucial to its competitiveness. So far, despite a strong startup pipeline, limited access to late-stage growth capital, and fragmented investment markets have hindered European innovators' ability to grow into global leaders.

"Europe has the ideas and the talent to build the most innovative companies in the world. But as they scale up, we need to ensure they have the means to grow, attract investment, and thrive right here at home. High-quality jobs and Europe's overall competitiveness depend on it. The Scaleup Europe Fund is an essential part of our work to make sure the best of Europe can choose Europe," said EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

At the high-level meeting hosted today by Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, a core group of potential investors and the European Investment Bank (EIB) came together to unlock the value of Europe's flourishing scaleup companies, while promoting European tech leadership. Alongside the Commission and the EIB Group, the group of potential founding investors in the Fund includes Novo Holdings, EIFO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark), CriteriaCaixa, Santander/Mouro Capital, Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo/ Intesa Sanpaolo/Fondazione Cariplo, APG Asset Management, acting on behalf of Dutch pension fund ABP, Wallenberg Investments, and BGK (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego).

These potential investors will work hand in hand with the EC to establish and capitalize the fund. They also agreed that the Scaleup Europe Fund will focus on growth capital and late-stage investments in a broad range of European strategic technology companies, including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, semiconductor technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, energy technologies, space technologies, biotechnologies, medical technologies, advanced materials, and agritech.

The fund will operate as a market-based, privately managed, and privately co-financed growth fund investing in major European-led investment rounds. The EC, together with the other founding investors, will select and appoint a management company to implement the fund. A public call for the management company will be published soon, with the aim that the Scaleup Europe Fund can start its first investments in Spring 2026.