The European Union (EU) creates an investors' club over funding woes technology sector and lagging behind China and the US in this regard. This is what the European edition Politico writes about with reference to EU representatives.
The European Commission (EC) has been acting as a venture capitalist since 2021 to bridge the funding gap for the critical technology industry from the US and China. EC chief Ursula von der Leyen promised in July to expand the program in the coming years. Now the European Commission intends to attract private venture investors in the technology sector to share the investment burden with them. Club of "trusted investors" will be launched on October 21 in Athens, and more than 40 investors have already confirmed their participation. They plan to participate in the investment together with the EU's own fund.
As the publication notes, the former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on September 9, in his report on the state of competitiveness of the EU, pointed to the lack of funding for the technological sector in the EU as one of the main problems. "Innovative digital companies typically struggle to grow in Europe and attract funding, leading to a huge gap between the EU and the US in late-stage funding," Politico quoted him as saying. Draghi noted that US AI startups attracted 61% of global funding, while EU companies claimed just 6%.