The European Commission this week selected Swedish investment firm EQT — one of Europe’s largest private market investors, with $311 billion in assets — to manage the fund; first investments are expected this autumn. The fund is backed by the Commission and private investors, including Allianz, CriteriaCaixa, and Novo Holdings.
The effort is part of a broader push to strengthen the EU’s tech sector following the 2024 Draghi report on competitiveness. Other initiatives include EU Inc proposals aimed at reducing red tape for startups and a Tech Sovereignty Package due May 27 that’s expected to include measures to support domestic technology firms.
The push reflects concerns that Europe has struggled to produce and retain globally competitive tech companies. Only around 8% of global scale-up firms are headquartered in the EU, according to European Commission data, compared to roughly 60% in North America. And many promising startups are acquired by larger US firms before they reach the scale needed to compete globally; Google’s 2014 buyout of DeepMind is a notable example.
“Europe produces world-class deep-tech innovation and has a strong pipeline of early-stage startups, but has consistently struggled to convert that pipeline into globally competitive companies at scale,” said Richard Stevens, associate vice president of IDC’s IDC4EU European Government Consulting unit.