Jean-Christophe Laloux of the European Investment Bank at Wave by Vento in Turin, 9 October 2026 Credit: Wave by Vento Europe must give its startups the capital to grow without leaving the continent, Jean-Christophe Laloux said. The incoming chief executive of the European Investment Fund spoke at Wave by Vento in Turin on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to innovate in Europe. You also must be able to scale in Europe. And that is really important on the notion of sovereignty,\u201d Laloux said.<\/p>\n
Sovereignty does not mean protectionism or isolationism, he said. It means offering European alternatives where things really matter, from critical raw materials to cyber resilience. Laloux is director general for EU lending and advisory operations at the European Investment Bank. He takes over the EIF, the bank group\u2019s venture arm, on 1 January, the EIF said in July.<\/p>\n
Ian King of The Times interviewed him. Funds big enough to keep companies The bottleneck has moved from early-stage innovation to scaling up, Laloux said. That is the growth stage, from Series B to C. The European Tech Champions Initiative was set up to close that gap, he said.<\/p>\n
It is a fund of funds of nearly \u20ac4bn, backed by six member states and the EIB Group. It invests in venture funds of about \u20ac1bn. Funds that size can write bigger cheques, so companies that have raised Series A and B can grow faster and stay in Europe. At the same event, Vittorio Colao told reporters that Europe needs a single capital market.<\/p>\n
The initiative has backed 12 funds, he said, nearly three times the number of \u20ac1bn funds in Europe five years ago. Those funds already hold 15 European unicorns. Laloux expects to announce a second version in November. It will also back funds of \u20ac300m to \u20ac500m, because not every ecosystem has funds that reach \u20ac1bn.<\/p>\n
It will add a platform for institutional and private investors to co-invest alongside the funds. Italy\u2019s share Italy put \u20ac150m into the initiative. The funds it backs have invested nearly \u20ac600m in seven Italian companies, three of them with international partners, Laloux said. That shows international investors find the Italian ecosystem interesting, he said.<\/p>\n
Venture debt and grants The EIB Group also lends to startups through venture debt, he said. It has no repayment for at least five years, and instead of high interest, the lender takes warrants or similar rewards tied to the company\u2019s success. The group also structures the equity side of the European Innovation Council\u2019s funding for early-stage startups. Where the money is going Deep tech in Europe has grown from about \u20ac1tn in valuation five years ago to \u20ac4tn, faster than any other part of the economy, Laloux said.<\/p>\n
He named climate, security and defence, space and biotech. Funds that received EIB Group money backed Isar Aerospace, he said, whose Spectrum rocket launched from Norway. Security and defence, including cybersecurity, is where capital and valuations have grown most in the past year, he said. The EIF will focus on four areas where Europe still leads: AI, health and biotech, security and defence, and cleantech.<\/p>\n
On AI, Europe cannot afford to be left out, because it can lift productivity, he said. Europe must neither leave AI unregulated nor smother it with rules. The EIB has earmarked \u20ac3bn for the EU\u2019s AI gigafactories, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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