28 Oct 2025
Commission partners with private investors to set up multi-billion Scaleup Europe Fund
On 28 October 2025, the European Commission brought together top-tier private investors from across Europe to jointly express their intention to establish the Scaleup Europe Fund – a new, multi-billion fund to invest in the most promising European companies in strategic deep tech areas.
By joining forces with these potential founding investors, the Commission moves ahead on the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy aimed at building a dynamic and competitive startup and scaleup ecosystem across Europe. According to the EC, the Scaleup Europe Fund responds to the urgent need for Europe 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.
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 with a common goal - 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 include 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 Commission to establish and capitalise the fund. They also agreed today 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 Scaleup Europe Fund will operate as a market-based, privately managed and privately co-financed growth fund investing in major European-led investment rounds. The Commission, 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 first investments in Spring 2026.
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