According to France’s finance minister, a new publicly sponsored multi-billion euro fund is being established to encourage investment in Europe’s tech sector, allowing it to compete with rivals in the United States and Asia.
If Europe is to minimize its reliance on foreign tech giants, Bruno Le Maire believes that home-grown European tech start-ups require significantly larger amounts of funding. He added that he and his German counterpart Christian Lindner would discuss the new fund of funds on Tuesday, but that it would feed 10 to 20 funds “with a minimum value of one billion euros to finance innovation champions.”
“By 2030, our ultimate goal is to have ten technological businesses worth over 100 billion euros apiece,” Le Maire stated at a conference on digital sovereignty. Berlin will contribute one billion euros to the fund, according to the German finance minister. Europe’s venture capital funds are frequently insufficient to fund the growth of European tech start-ups, leaving them with few options other than to turn to considerably larger US funds.
Meanwhile, many American and Chinese IT companies have benefited from government support at some point in their development, something that has been more difficult for European companies in the past due to the EU’s rigorous state aid standards.