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In the 21st century, there is no political sovereignty without digital sovereignty
" insisted the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire at the opening of the two days of conferences devoted to the subject, within the framework of the French presidency of the Union. European.
However, one of the pillars of this digital sovereignty is based on Europe's ability to support innovation and give birth to future great technological giants.
While the European technological ecosystem has experienced an inflection point in 2021, the Old Continent does not yet have the capacity to participate in the financing of the last funding rounds that the greatest European champions need, before being able to enter into Stock Exchange.
To respond to this central problem, France is taking advantage of its six months of presidency to launch a new mechanism at European level, inspired by funds from the Tibi plan.
The latter forced insurers two years ago to inject 6 billion euros into French growth capital funds, thus contributing to the development of French Tech.
This new European mechanism will be based, on the one hand, on a pan-European fund of funds, supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF), the Union's specific risk capital tool.
Of the'
Twenty funds of more than one billion euros
Driving this initiative, France is providing 1 billion euros from France 2030 to the EIF and 500 million euros via Bpifrance.
Other countries have also already committed financially: Germany up to 1 billion euros in the pan-European fund, Denmark put 500 million euros through its national bank.
The European Investment Bank will add 500 million spread over funds of funds and direct investments.
In total, more than 3.5 billion euros have already been mobilized and other countries have promised to join the initiative.
With the hope of eventually being able to mobilize between 10 and 20 billion euros by public and private investors.
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The objective is to create around twenty funds, each endowed with one billion euros
", explains the Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O. Today, there are only two in Europe, Equity and Eurazeo. , compared to more than 40 in the United States.
Developing this European investment capacity now is all the more necessary as competition between venture capitalists has sharpened and foreign funds are now coming to "do their shopping" on the Old Continent.
“We are mobilizing more than 3.5 billion euros of public money today to leverage private capital and help European start-ups to grow and become champions of technology, able to compete with American giants
adds Bruno Le Maire.
Facilitate talent attraction
In addition to this new financing structure as part of Scale up Europe, the European Union also wants to facilitate the recruitment of talent by European technology companies.
Although it is not possible to create a single European tech visa across the 27, 16 Member States have undertaken to make life easier for future applicants by bringing together on a common platform all the useful information
on
various European tech visas to clarify the way of working in European start-ups and scale-ups.
Member States also undertake to launch a one-stop shop
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with a dedicated team in place by the end of 2022. It will provide tailor-made advice on existing technology programs in Member States and living in Europe (including information on visas, taxes, social security and health insurance contributions). (other practical details on setting up in different countries)
. “European tech must change scale to bring out giants capable of competing at international level.
To achieve this, talent and funding are the two strategic levers that we must mobilize.
The commitments made today in this direction are historic,"
adds Cédric O.
Finally, to also strengthen its support for breakthrough innovations - what we call deeptech - the European Union will give more leeway to the European Innovation Council (a fund endowed with 10 billion euros) enabling investments of more than 15 million euros.
On the model of the French Next 40, it will also dedicate “premium” support to the 100 most promising European deeptech companies.
Search for investors, financing, support on regulatory issues... The winners of this "scale up 100" will see their lives made easier by specific support.