EU to spend €900M on expanding critical technologies

With the fund, the European Commission aims to dissuade the bloc’s tech companies from tapping non-EU funds when they want to expand their operations significantly after their initial build-out. The United States, for example, is known to have far larger scale-up funds than Europe.

It has made the EU dependent on other regions, such as the U.S. and China, for technologies such as microchips and cloud services. The EU’s incoming tech boss, Finland’s Henna Virkkunen, is responsible for making the EU technologically “sovereign” again.

But even before she assumes office, the EU executive is already lining up cash to avoid strategically important tech companies from falling into foreign hands.

Under the new program, eligible companies can apply for an equity investment of between €10 million and €30 million — giving Brussels effective part ownership of these companies.

The fund is meant to scale up companies working on tech, clean tech or biotech that have already raised money. The companies should also be able to demonstrate interest from other, private, investors in joining the funding round.

Brussels’ share is also a minority of the funding round: The total sum should be three to five times Brussels’ investment.