August 10, 2026

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The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

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August 10, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • Strategic Insight

LATEST
Europe Finally Locks In Its 348-Satellite Answer to StarlinkPlatform Work Rules Face a National Scramble Before DecemberDuty-Free Parcels Reach the End of the Line for EU ShoppersAfter Nine Years, Europe and Australia Seal a Trade PactBeijing Answers Europe’s Russia Sanctions in KindOne Year On, the EU-Japan Alliance Faces Its First TestEurope’s Chip Ambitions Still Run Through Taiwan’s FabsWhy South Korea Bet Its Research Future on Europe’s ProgrammeEurope and Japan Deepen Their Economic Alliance as Rivals CircleFive Joint Defence Projects Launch Europe’s Military ShieldElectrification Plan Aims to Make Europe First Electro ContinentHorizon Europe Budget Fight Heats Up as Ministers Push BackGoogle’s DMA Fine Sets Off a Transatlantic Tariff ClashTwenty New University Alliances Join Erasmus for Two YearsForeign Subsidies Case Puts Temu in the EU’s SightsVan Tachographs Now Mandatory for Cross-Border FleetsStress Test Exposes Gaps in Euro Area Bank DefencesEurope Bets on a Gulf Partnership Before the Riyadh SummitWhy the Atlantic Route Now Runs Through MauritaniaKyiv and Chisinau Advance as the EU Accession Talks Gather PaceEurope Finally Locks In Its 348-Satellite Answer to StarlinkPlatform Work Rules Face a National Scramble Before DecemberDuty-Free Parcels Reach the End of the Line for EU ShoppersAfter Nine Years, Europe and Australia Seal a Trade PactBeijing Answers Europe’s Russia Sanctions in KindOne Year On, the EU-Japan Alliance Faces Its First TestEurope’s Chip Ambitions Still Run Through Taiwan’s FabsWhy South Korea Bet Its Research Future on Europe’s ProgrammeEurope and Japan Deepen Their Economic Alliance as Rivals CircleFive Joint Defence Projects Launch Europe’s Military ShieldElectrification Plan Aims to Make Europe First Electro ContinentHorizon Europe Budget Fight Heats Up as Ministers Push BackGoogle’s DMA Fine Sets Off a Transatlantic Tariff ClashTwenty New University Alliances Join Erasmus for Two YearsForeign Subsidies Case Puts Temu in the EU’s SightsVan Tachographs Now Mandatory for Cross-Border FleetsStress Test Exposes Gaps in Euro Area Bank DefencesEurope Bets on a Gulf Partnership Before the Riyadh SummitWhy the Atlantic Route Now Runs Through MauritaniaKyiv and Chisinau Advance as the EU Accession Talks Gather Pace

Tech Scaleups Gain an 80 Billion Euro Ladder to Stay Home

Milot Rashica
Policy Reporter, Research and Innovation

Stockholm: Europe keeps inventing companies and then losing them to American investors, and this month it moved to plug the leak. On 10 July the European Investment Bank Group launched the second phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative, an alliance built to mobilise up to 80 billion euro so that promising tech scaleups can grow without crossing the Atlantic for capital.

The design is a fund of funds. The initiative aims to raise as much as 15 billion euro, roughly four times the size of the original 2023 vehicle, and channel it into large European venture funds that in turn back companies scaling toward global weight. The EIB Group will commit up to 1.25 billion euro of its own money to anchor the effort.

The ambition is scale. Backers expect the alliance to reach more than 1,500 scaleups and, for the first time, to support mid-sized growth funds above 300 million euro rather than only the largest mega-funds. The bank set out the plan when it announced the launch on its press pages.

The problem it targets is familiar to any founder in Stockholm, Berlin or Paris. Europe nurtures startups well but struggles to fund the later rounds, the ones that turn a clever idea into a market leader, and so its best companies often chase deep-pocketed American funds and drift toward US listings. The first phase already helped grow twelve European unicorns, a proof of concept the bank now wants to multiply.

Governments are lining up. Cyprus, Romania and Hungary confirmed they would join in the days after the launch, and private names such as Santander, BBVA and Danske Bank have signed on, a mix that officials hope signals confidence to the wider market. The final size will be fixed later in 2026 when contributions are locked in at a first closing.

Skeptics remain. Some investors argue that money alone will not fix Europe’s fragmented capital markets, and that scaleups also need deeper pension-fund investment and a genuine single market for finance. Others note that the fund invests through intermediaries, so its success depends on the venture managers it picks rather than the headline figure.

For a founder weighing whether to stay European, the promise is concrete. If the money arrives as advertised, tech scaleups gain a ladder that reaches the growth stage, and Europe gets a chance to keep the companies it builds instead of watching them mature somewhere else.

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