The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group have launched a new voluntary framework intended to steer more long-term investment into European technology scale-ups.
The initiative, called the European Institutional Investors Pact, was announced at the TechEU Equity Summit and is designed to make it easier for large investors such as pension funds, banks and insurers to back European venture capital and growth equity funds, the Commission and the EIB Group informed on Tuesday.
Thirteen institutional investors have already indicated they intend to channel investments into Europe’s innovation and scale-up ecosystem, including through the €15 billion European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) 2.0 and the €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund.
“By bringing together public and private partners, the goal is to unlock long-term capital for our technology,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated.
The pact has been developed under the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, with the Commission and the EIB Group saying it is meant to help fast-growing companies access capital to expand while remaining based in Europe.
Two-part structure for investors
The framework includes a Policy Dialogue Forum, led by the Commission, to enable exchanges with institutional investors on regulatory and EU investment policy developments, the institutions said.
It also includes an Investment Platform led by the EIB Group, intended to help investors find opportunities across Europe’s venture capital and growth equity market, including by sharing investment pipelines and market intelligence.
The platform is also expected to align with national initiatives and to provide “pathways to exit” — a term used in investing to describe how early backers can sell some or all of their shares to realise returns.
EIB Group president Nadia Calviño said the aim was “to provide Europe’s institutional investors with a single, credible entry point into innovation financing”.
The Scaleup Europe Fund is a pan-European late-stage and growth fund targeting €5 billion in commitments and is managed by EQT.
ETCI was launched in 2023 by the EIB Group and six EU member states, and has backed 15 “mega-funds” and 47 scale-ups, including 15 “unicorns” — start-ups valued at more than $1 billion — in three years.
