European Commission and EIB launch pact to close Europe's scale-up funding gap
What's the deal? The European CommissionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group have launched the European Institutional Investors Pact (EIIP), a voluntary framework to channel more long-term institutional capital into Europe's technology and scale-up ecosystem. The Pact was unveiled at the TechEU Equity Summit in Luxembourg in September 2026, with 13 institutional investors already signalling intent to invest.
How it's structured. The EIIP rests on two pillars: a Policy Dialogue Forum, led by the Commission, through which investors engage on regulatory and EU investment policy; and an Investment Platform, led by the EIB Group, giving investors access to deal pipelines, market intelligence and peer exchange across Europe's venture and growth equity ecosystem. Commitments are expected to flow largely through two existing vehicles — the €15 billion European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) 2.0 and the €5 billion Scaleup Europe Fund.
Why now? European startups have long struggled to raise late-stage and growth capital, particularly rounds above €100 million, often forcing them to look outside the bloc for funding. The Pact aims to connect pension funds, insurers and banks with domestic high-growth companies so they can scale without leaving Europe.
Read more: EU-Startups
