Key Takeaways
- • The European Commission and EIB Group launched the European Institutional Investors Pact, a voluntary framework giving institutional investors such as insurers and pension funds EU policy intelligence and curated investment opportunities in innovation.
- • Only 13 institutional investors have said they intend to join the pact, and their names have not been made public, according to the Commission.
- • The pact includes no new public funding; it links investors to existing initiatives, the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) and the Scaleup Europe Fund.
- • Pension funds manage around €3 trillion in EU savings but allocate only about 0.01% of assets to venture capital, per Commission research head Marc Lemaître.
- • France Digitale says the pact is a good first step but insufficient, noting France's Tibi initiative has drawn 37 investors and €29 billion in total commitments.
Summary
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group have launched the European Institutional Investors Pact, a voluntary framework designed to make it easier for institutional investors such as insurance companies and pension funds to invest in innovative companies. The pact was presented to investors at the TechEU Equity Summit on September 22, where EIB Group president Nadia Calviño described its goal as giving Europe's institutional investors "a single, credible European entry point into innovation financing."
The pact has two components. A policy dialogue forum led by the Commission will brief investors on EU policy developments that could affect investment decisions, while an investment platform led by the EIB Group will provide access to curated investment opportunities, market intelligence and ecosystem insights. The initiative contains no new public funding commitments; it seeks to connect investors to the existing ETCI, a fund-of-funds programme whose second iteration, ETCI 2.0, has a first closing expected in October and a target size of up to €15 billion, and to the Scaleup Europe Fund, which aims to raise an initial €5 billion.
The Commission argues the gap is structural. Marc Lemaître, head of the Commission's research and innovation directorate, said pension funds manage around €3 trillion in EU savings but allocate only about 0.01% to venture capital, while pension funds are a far larger source of venture funding in the US. He framed the issue as one of competitiveness and technological sovereignty, noting that European companies are often financed and shaped from outside Europe. The pact builds on national programmes, including France's Tibi initiative (launched 2019), Germany's Win initiative (2024) and Poland's planned €1 billion Innovate Poland.
Response has been mixed. According to the Commission, 13 investors have signalled intent to join, though names remain unpublished. France Digitale's Ester Davanzo called the pact a good first step but said it is "not enough," noting that the Tibi initiative alone has attracted 37 investors and that the French government announced in June an additional €13 billion for Tibi's third phase, bringing its total to €29 billion. Davanzo said the scale must be at least ten times greater than currently announced. Invest Europe welcomed the pact as addressing obstacles such as institutions' lack of specialised teams to assess private equity and venture capital managers, while noting that fragmentation and divergent national interpretations of EU legislation remain barriers. EIB vice-president Karl Nehammer urged more institutional investors to join ETCI 2.0.
The pact has two components. A policy dialogue forum led by the Commission will brief investors on EU policy developments that could affect investment decisions, while an investment platform led by the EIB Group will provide access to curated investment opportunities, market intelligence and ecosystem insights. The initiative contains no new public funding commitments; it seeks to connect investors to the existing ETCI, a fund-of-funds programme whose second iteration, ETCI 2.0, has a first closing expected in October and a target size of up to €15 billion, and to the Scaleup Europe Fund, which aims to raise an initial €5 billion.
The Commission argues the gap is structural. Marc Lemaître, head of the Commission's research and innovation directorate, said pension funds manage around €3 trillion in EU savings but allocate only about 0.01% to venture capital, while pension funds are a far larger source of venture funding in the US. He framed the issue as one of competitiveness and technological sovereignty, noting that European companies are often financed and shaped from outside Europe. The pact builds on national programmes, including France's Tibi initiative (launched 2019), Germany's Win initiative (2024) and Poland's planned €1 billion Innovate Poland.
Response has been mixed. According to the Commission, 13 investors have signalled intent to join, though names remain unpublished. France Digitale's Ester Davanzo called the pact a good first step but said it is "not enough," noting that the Tibi initiative alone has attracted 37 investors and that the French government announced in June an additional €13 billion for Tibi's third phase, bringing its total to €29 billion. Davanzo said the scale must be at least ten times greater than currently announced. Invest Europe welcomed the pact as addressing obstacles such as institutions' lack of specialised teams to assess private equity and venture capital managers, while noting that fragmentation and divergent national interpretations of EU legislation remain barriers. EIB vice-president Karl Nehammer urged more institutional investors to join ETCI 2.0.
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