www.business-review.eu Business Review | February 2021
28 ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EU flexes funding muscle to boost startup ecosystem The European Union is making strides in supporting the growth of the startup industry, having already made equity investments worth EUR 178 million through a specialised fund. EU funds could help Romania grow its startup ecosystem, which currently reports some EUR 36 worth of venture capital investments per capita, still below the European average. By Ovidiu Posirca
EU funding for another 117 entrepreneurial companies is pending review
T
(EIC) fund has already financed 42
investments with grants and aims to take a
highly innovative startups or small
stake of 10 to 25 percent in funded startups.
and medium-sized businesses, with Euro-
Equity investments start from EUR 500,000
ments as it aims to have its own home-grown
pean funding for another 117 companies
and can reach EUR 15 million, depending on
startup giants. While the value of European
pending review.
the firm’s size and development stage.
companies backed by venture capital stands
he European Innovation Council
In short, the EIC fund blends equity
“For the past several years, EU has been
Alexandru Bogdan, the CEO of startup investment fund ROCA X, tells BR. The EU is deploying new funding instru-
at USD 700 billion, this figure reaches USD 10
INVESTMENTS TO KEEP HIGH-FLYING STARTUPS IN EUROPE
showing increased interest in becoming more
trillion in the US, according to a report pub-
competitive and focusing on this segment
lished in late 2020 by dealroom.co and Sifted.
The EU has already provided around EUR 563
of the market, as many successful European
million in grants to 293 companies under the
founders have been lured by US dollars to
KPMG show that in 2020, venture capital
EIC Accelerator programme.
move their businesses off the continent,”
investment across Europe reached a record
Data from professional services firm
