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Published on 09.02.2022 • Edited on 09.02.2022 at 10:54
Scale-up Europe aims to put Europe on the map as a tech homeland. Luxembourg has now joined the cause. Photo: Shutterstock.
Finance minister Yuriko Backes (DP) and economy minister Franz Fayot (LSAP) announced the grand duchy’s participation in the “Scale-up Europe” initiative.
The project, launched by France, aims to give easier access to funds for companies that are in their growing phase. As it looks to host at least 10 tech companies valued at more than €100bn each by 2030 it will need to harness funds from European investors for its goal to compete with other parts of the world.
At the heart of “Scale-up Europe” are social cohesion and climate goals, for which “disruptive technologies and businesses”, as its website puts it, are needed. As Fayot explains in an official statement, the initiative aligns with the grand duchy’s “efforts to answer to the financing needs of startups, and make the Grand Duchy a homeland for young innovative enterprises.”
Backes says the country’s aim is to “create tech giants” and hopes the alliance with “Scale-up Europe” will help “dynamise the role of Luxembourg’s finance place” in the promotion of innovating businesses.
The initiative supports expanding businesses and startups when they are looking to raise funds on the private markets. The Luxembourg-based European Investment Fund (EIF) will also play a role in the initiative by managing a fund of funds under a technical mandate. The details of this will be developed and announced in the coming months.
Planning to put Europe on the map as a land of opportunity for innovators, “Scale-up Europe” should give birth to an ecosystem of European financing. The collaboration between banks and national institutions in the participating member states would thus be essential.