- Since 2000, simply six out of 14 Danish-founded unicorns have stayed in Denmark or Europe. The others moved overseas, principally to the US, to seek out late-stage funding.
- EIFO, Denmark’s nationwide promotional financial institution, has invested €200 million within the new Scaleup Europe Fund as the one nationwide promotional financial institution among the many anchor traders. It joins eight different founding traders, together with the European Fee, which has dedicated €1 billion, Novo Holdings, Allianz, and APG.
- The €5 billion fund is managed by EQT, which has beforehand supported firms like Wolt, Einride, and Nothing. It plans to spend money on 30 to 40 high European growth-stage tech firms, with the primary funding anticipated in autumn 2026.
Europe is sweet at creating startups, but it surely struggles to maintain them.
Out of 14 Danish-founded unicorns since 2000, solely six remained in Denmark or Europe. The remaining principally moved to the US, the place late-stage funding is simpler to acquire, funding rounds are bigger, and traders are keen to supply extra capital.
Scaleup Europe Fund, the €5 billion fund, hopes to maintain the following wave of high-growth firms in Europe.
At the moment, EIFO, Denmark’s nationwide promotional financial institution and export credit score company, dedicated €200 million to the Scaleup Europe Fund, making it the one state-backed anchor investor. The fund is a part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and is managed by Swedish funding agency EQT, which managed €269 billion in belongings as of March 31, 2026.
The European Fee can be a founding investor and has dedicated €1 billion to the fund, the biggest single dedication among the many founding traders. The Fee participates on equal phrases with non-public traders and has a corresponding illustration within the fund’s governance construction.
The fund plans to spend money on 30 to 40 promising European growth-stage tech firms, with the primary funding anticipated in autumn 2026.
Why does Europe hold dropping its high firms?
The fund goals to deal with a widely known capital scarcity in Europe. For instance, DeepMind was sold to Google in 2014 for what Google’s former CFO referred to as “a steal.” ARM was purchased by SoftBank in 2016 for £24 billion.
Since 2019, US consumers have picked up nearly $24 billion in European spinouts, greater than native consumers. Many European firms do effectively as much as Sequence B or C, however then battle to boost greater than €100 million to compete globally. This funding hole pushes firms to hunt capital overseas or gradual their progress, and securing capital exterior Europe typically means relocating the corporate.
The Scaleup Europe Fund is designed to deal with this downside. It can spend money on firms working in areas like synthetic intelligence, quantum expertise, robotics, vitality tech, area, biotech, medtech, and agritech.
EQT plans one other fundraising spherical within the second half of 2026, permitting extra traders to affix whereas sustaining a robust European focus.
Why is EIFO the one state backer
EIFO has performed extra than simply make investments cash. Over the previous 12 months, it helped design the fund, led the method to decide on EQT as supervisor, and set the funding standards. This implies the fund is about up for business success from the start, reasonably than being modified later to suit coverage targets.
Peder Lundquist, EIFO’s chief govt, says the dedication displays a structural downside that has value Europe dearly.
“Europe clearly wants stronger capital within the later progress phases if we’re to retain our most promising firms on the continent. With the Scaleup Europe Fund, we’re serving to deal with a essential hole and guaranteeing that extra of those firms keep in Denmark and Europe,” he notes.
Erik Balck Sørensen, EIFO’s chief funding officer, emphasised that business viability was important within the fund’s design.
“We’ve been carefully concerned in shaping the fund’s framework, and it has been important for us to make sure a commercially viable mannequin that may appeal to the strongest European firms. On the identical time, we’ve had a transparent give attention to guaranteeing the fund additionally advantages Denmark. We’re subsequently happy that it targets a number of areas of Danish energy,” he provides.
Balck Sørensen expects one or more Danish companies to receive support
EQT’s track record and the expectations it brings
EQT is a seasoned manager. Its venture arm, EQT Ventures, has helped over 140 founding groups and backed unicorns like Wolt, Einride, Handshake, Nothing, and Sana.
The Scaleup Europe Fund will give attention to later-stage firms from Sequence B onwards, with investments a lot bigger than EQT Ventures’ traditional €1 million- € 50 million vary. This sturdy observe file offers EQT credibility and raises expectations for outcomes.
Christian Sinding, who chairs the fund’s funding committee at EQT, notes, “Europe has the expertise, the expertise and the ambition to supply the following era of worldwide tech leaders. What has been lacking is the capital and conviction to again them at scale and pace. With the Scaleup Europe Fund, we’re right here to vary that.”
Together with EIFO, the founding traders embody the European Fee, Novo Holdings, Germany’s Allianz, APG Asset Administration for the Dutch pension fund ABP, Spain’s CriteriaCaixa and Santander, and a number of other Italian foundations, together with Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Fondazione Cariplo.
This combine is intentional, so the fund is seen as pan-European reasonably than serving only one nation’s pursuits.
It’s truthful to ask if €5 billion can actually change late-stage funding in Europe. The US enterprise market typically invests rather more in a single quarter, and public-private funds generally battle when politics will get concerned. Nonetheless, the Scaleup Europe Fund isn’t attempting to match US funding ranges.
Its objective is to verify the following Spotify, Klarna, or Zendesk can select to develop in Europe. Proper now, many firms don’t have that alternative.
