Speakers
Objectives
Objectives
This session aims to take stock of Europe’s medium-term innovation financing gap by identifying the key bottlenecks along the innovation lifecycle, in particular at the scale-up and late-stage phases. It will examine the respective roles of market structure, risk appetite, exit conditions and regulatory fragmentation in constraining the mobilisation of patient risk capital. In this context, the discussion will assess whether ongoing reforms — including institutional investor mobilisation, the proposed 28th regime and the revision of the EuVECA framework — are sufficiently ambitious and credible to unlock significantly greater volumes of long-term capital over the next two to three years.
Beyond market mechanics, the session will also explore the broader governance and strategic dimension of Europe’s financing challenge. It will consider how EU-level initiatives and national strategies interact, whether current approaches risk reinforcing fragmentation or a “middle-technology” equilibrium, and whether incremental reforms are sufficient to close the scale-up gap. The objective is to move from diagnosis to action by identifying clear priorities, sequencing and concrete next steps to strengthen Europe’s capacity to pool, steer and concentrate capital towards high-risk, high-impact innovation.
Points of discussion
- The Kukies-Noyer report (mid-2025) highlighted several obstacles faced by European start-ups, notably the shortage of mid-stage financing. Once firms reach a certain critical size, they struggle to secure additional European funding, pushing them to relocate or sell early with implications for competitiveness and European technological sovereignty. What specific features of European capital and debt markets make scale-up financing so challenging?
- Beyond financing, Europe’s scale-up challenges also stem from regulatory and legal fragmentation. Differences in company law, insolvency regimes, taxation, labour rules (e.g. France’s 50-employee threshold) and financial market supervision increase the cost and complexity of scaling across borders. To what extent do these regulatory barriers prevent Europe from deploying its available capital effectively building more globally competitive firms?