EU plans new fund to help tech companies scale

The European Commission plans to use EU funds to buy stakes in artificial intelligence and quantum companies seeking to scale as it continues a bid to counter U.S. dominance.

According to a draft strategy seen by POLITICO, the EU will create a new Scaleup Europe Fund next year that is privately managed and co-financed by private investors.

The plan, set to be published Wednesday, comes amid increasingly vocal concerns about technological dependency on the U.S. and other global powers.

The fund seeks to counter a “clear funding gap” that European companies experience when scaling risky, capital-intensive technologies that need investments above €100 million.

The lack of scale-up capital “poses several risks for the EU,” such as the loss of companies and critical technologies domestically, according to the plan.

“A European scale-up with critical mass, operating at market conditions, is needed to fill this gap and strengthen the EU’s economic security and tech sovereignty,” it reads.

The draft — which contains more details on the fund than a version reported previously by POLITICO — shows the Commission is upping its efforts to invest in the bloc’s highest potential companies.

The fund would allow the Commission and investors to take a direct stake in companies operating in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, clean tech, semiconductors, advanced materials and biotech.

The EU’s European Innovation Council has already made such investments, but only for much smaller companies that are just starting up.

The Commission also wants to let startups establish their business more quickly, possibly within two days, according to the draft.

The EU executive has set the goal of “easing the process of setting up and scaling companies,” it says. Therefore it will present a new regime in the first quarter of next year with “a single set of rules based on digital-by-default solutions” for setting up and scaling a company.

The Commission said it would explore whether companies can establish their business “more rapidly, ideally within 48 hours.”

Tech startups have long rallied against the lengthy processes of establishing their businesses, which they often have to repeat when scaling their businesses in new countries.

The two-day incorporation model is one made famous by business-friendly U.S. states such as Delaware.