Joint press release: Commission and EIB Group launch European Institutional Investors Pact to boost investment in European tech scale-ups

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group launched today the European Institutional Investors Pact (EIIP) at the TechEU Equity Summit. 

The Pact is a new voluntary framework designed to channel more long-term institutional capital into Europe's technology and scale-up ecosystem. Thirteen institutional investors have already expressed their intention 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.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Talent, ideas and ambition – Europe has all of these. Now we are making sure our innovative companies can grow, scale and lead on the global stage - from Europe. By bringing together public and private partners, the goal is to unlock long-term capital for our technology. This is about turning European innovation into European industrial and economic strength."

The EIIP has been developed jointly by the Commission and the EIB Group under the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy.

It aims to make it easier for institutional investors to invest in European venture capital and growth equity funds, helping high-growth European companies access the capital they need to scale up and compete globally while remaining rooted in Europe.

It forms part of the broader EU effort to unlock more institutional capital, from investors such as banks, pension funds and insurance companies, for European technology and innovation, addressing one of the key funding challenges identified in Europe's competitiveness agenda.

Nadia Calviño, President of the EIB Group said: “Our goal is clear: to provide Europe's institutional investors with a single, credible entry point into innovation financing. In today's world, this partnership between EU institutions and the private sector sends a powerful message of European unity, ambition and determination."

To support investors, the Pact includes two complementary elements:

• A Policy Dialogue Forum: led by the Commission, this forum will enable exchanges with institutional investors on regulatory policy developments, as well as EU investment policies.
• An Investment Platform: led by the EIB Group, this platform will help investors access investment opportunities across Europe's venture capital and growth equity ecosystem, through sharing of investment pipelines, market intelligence and peer exchange. It will be developed in close cooperation with Member States and aligned with relevant national initiatives, aiming to facilitate engagement and provide pathways to exit - enabling early investors, to realise returns through partial or full share sales.

The 13 institutional investors ready to join the EIIP have expressed their intent in investing in large EU-based funds focused on later-stage and growth equity financing for European technology companies. These include the European Tech Champions Initiative 2.0, the Scaleup Europe Fund, the European Investment Fund-backed funds supported under InvestEU, and other investment strategies targeting the scale-up phase of venture and growth capital.

Background

The EIIP provides a voluntary framework for institutional investors to support Europe's venture and growth financing ecosystem, including through ETCI 2.0 and the Scaleup Europe Fund.

The Scaleup Europe Fund is a pan-European late-stage and growth fund targeting €5 billion in commitments. Managed by EQT, a private company selected by founding investors from across the EU as the preferred investment adviser and fund manager for the Scaleup Europe Fund,  and backed by the Commission alongside leading European institutional investors, it makes direct investment in ambitious European companies in strategic tech areas, such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, semiconductor technologies, robotics and autonomous systems, energy technologies, space technologies, biotechnologies, medical technologies, advanced materials, and agritech. By mobilising long-term capital at scale, the Fund addresses Europe's growth-financing gap and helps European companies scale globally from Europe.

Launched in 2023 by the EIB Group and six EU Member States, the European Tech Champions Initiative supports Europe's Venture Capital and Private Equity ecosystem to close the scale-up funding gap. In three years, it has backed 15 mega-funds (target fund size of €1 billion+) and 47 scale-ups, including 15 unicorns – that is, startup companies valued at over $1 billion. Building on this success, ETCI 2.0 endorsed by all 27 EU Member States, aims to mobilise up to €80 billion through a pan-European alliance of institutional investors.

For more information

Scaleup Europe Fund

European Tech Champions Initiative