One billion euros for European startups
The majority of the amount will come from private investors. The European funds will assure 400 million euros.
The European Commission will launch an investment fund of one billion euros to finance startups. The announcement was made, this morning, by the European commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation Carlos Moedas, in a press conference during the Web Summit.
"In Europe, we have a problem. Everyone is capable of creating their own companies, but, when those companies grow, the majority of them are purchased by entities from other parts of the world. Our idea is to have funds that allow companies to not only be created in Europe, but also to remain in Europe.”
The fund will start with a one billion euros basis and can ascend to 1.6 billion euros. From this amount, 400 million euros will be from public money and the remaining amount will come from private entities. In total, public funds can only represent up to 25% of the amount invested in each company.
Starting today, and until January, the European Commission will select the companies eligible for the fund that will, in turn, search for prospective private investors. Depending on the amount of money available from that private entity, the EC will invest the remaining amount.
The idea is, therefore, to have the funds distributed throughout 2017.
“This is a process of crucial importance for innovation”, emphasizes Carlos Moedas. “The ecosystem needs money to grow”.
