Europe launches €80 billion push to back its tech giants

Europe is doubling down on its bet to grow homegrown tech companies into global players. The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, together with the governments of all 27 EU countries and a growing roster of private investors, has launched the second phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI), aiming to mobilize up to €80 billion for Europe's most promising scaleups.

The announcement came in Brussels on the sidelines of an ECOFIN meeting of EU finance ministers, where the parties formally backed "ETCI 2.0" — a significantly bigger and broader version of the initiative first launched in 2023.

Why it matters

European startups have long faced a familiar problem: plenty of funding to get started, but not enough to scale up into world-beating companies without turning to investors in the US or Asia. ETCI was designed to close that gap by channeling equity investment into "mega-funds" that back tech companies through their growth stages, keeping more of Europe's most successful startups — and their headquarters — on the continent.

The first phase of ETCI has already backed 15 mega-funds and helped nurture 12 EU-based "unicorns," startups valued at more than €1 billion.

What's new

ETCI 2.0 is a much larger undertaking. It has a fundraising target of up to €15 billion — roughly four times the size of the original fund — which it will use to help mobilize up to €80 billion in total investment for more than 1,500 European scaleups.

The initiative will also broaden its scope. Alongside the large mega-funds it already supports, ETCI 2.0 will, for the first time, back mid-sized growth funds with more than €300 million in capital, aiming to anchor over 100 funds in total, including up to 45 mega-funds capable of writing average investment tickets of €200 million per company.

A new pan-European investment platform will sit alongside the funding, giving investors a clearer pipeline of European tech opportunities, market intelligence, and ecosystem insights, and will be supported by a digital tool to help match capital with opportunities.

Who's involved

The EIB Group plans to invest up to €1.25 billion into the fund itself. It's being joined by a growing list of private institutional investors, including Danske Bank, Spain's AltamarCAM, Banco Santander and BBVA, and Italian firms Azimut Holding, Green Arrow Capital and Compagnia di San Paolo, with more expected to join later.

"The partnership launched today is all about scale and speed, powering European pioneers with the capital they need to grow," said EIB Group President Nadia Calviño, adding that the goal is to close the funding gap so that "ideas, technologies, and innovative firms born in Europe can stay and thrive in Europe."

Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris, speaking as Ireland holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, called the expanded initiative "an important step in closing Europe's scale-up financing gap," pointing to the inclusion of mid-sized funds and private capital as key to aligning it with Europe's broader competitiveness agenda.

The final size of ETCI 2.0 will be confirmed later in 2026 once contributions from all participants are locked in. The initiative is also designed to work alongside existing national schemes, such as France's "Tibi" program, Germany's "WIN" initiative, and the Scaleup Europe Fund, in what officials describe as a step toward a more integrated European investment ecosystem — one meant to reinforce the EU's push for greater financial and strategic independence.