The European Investment Bank (EIB) is pumping 70 billion euros into European startups to prevent them from falling into American hands.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to invest around 70 billion euros in European startups by 2027. With this initiative, the EIB hopes to encourage private investors to step in, which could potentially lead to about 250 billion euros in investments in the European technology sector. “This is the largest program ever exclusively aimed at supporting European innovation and technological leadership,” EIB Group President Nadia Calviño tells German newspaper Handelsblatt in an interview.
Investment Gap
With this new initiative, the EIB hopes to close the investment gap between Europe and the United States. When European tech startups grow larger, they need substantial investments to continue growing. According to the EIB, it’s still too often the case that American investors appear at that moment for financial support, causing European companies with great potential to end up in American hands.
With this initiative, the EIB hopes that European investors will also be motivated to invest in European tech startups, so that they “no longer need to go to the United States for their capital needs in the growth phase,” Calviño explains.
The plan still needs to be approved by the EIB’s Board of Governors, which consists of 27 Finance Ministers from EU member states.