TechEU - Catalyze, Not Subsidize

The EIB Group has launched the TechEU Platform, positioning it as Europe’s next major financial accelerator. With a target to mobilise €250 billion by 2027, the initiative aims to simplify and scale access to innovation finance across the continent.

Yet ambition alone is not enough. Capital with mixed mandates has historically undermined discipline. Persistent dependence on external balance sheets, whether from sovereign wealth funds or corporate venture arms, can weaken accountability. In coordinated economies, these actors often dominate the financial ecosystem, lending legitimacy without enforcing selectivity, and offering support without genuine acceleration. TechEU must resist this pattern. If it becomes another mission-heavy instrument, it risks amplifying visibility without improving outcomes, prolonging marginal projects rather than enabling those with market potential...

To avoid this, TechEU could operate as a catalyst rather than a subsidy. Catalysts accelerate reactions without becoming entangled in them. This would require independent underwriting, a strict separation between advisory functions and risk-taking, and transparent reporting that clearly shows how much private capital is being mobilised rather than displaced. It also demands the discipline to withdraw when follow-on investment fails to materialise even when broader policy objectives may argue for continued support.

If TechEU can deliver consistent speed, clarity, and execution, it has the potential to close the structural gap between early-stage innovation and global competitiveness, advancing more technologies from concept to commercial scale...

More here: tech.eu & EIB