The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 includes the launch of the Scaleup Europe Fund aimed at mobilising growth capital for fast‑growing European tech and strategic companies
At Davos, European Commission Startup, Research and Innovation Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva launched the Scale-up Europe Fund, a market-driven, privately managed growth and late-stage vehicle designed to keep Europe’s best deep-tech companies scaling “global from Europe,” rather than seeking capital abroad. Built as a public-private partnership, the fund has already secured about €2.5 billion in commitments and expects a first close near €3 billion in spring, targeting €5 billion with aspirations to grow if early results prove out. Zaharieva framed the logic plainly: Europe has “the capital… the best talent… [and] a big market,” but must stop “complaining” and start building mechanisms that match later-stage financing needs.
Founding investor Kasim Kutay (Novo Holdings) emphasized Europe’s strategic moment and the cultural case for long-term value creation, noting surprise at the speed: “I did not think we would be talking today about a first close… this quickly.” Marcus Wallenberg highlighted the missing ecosystem for scale, citing stalled progress on banking and capital markets union, and set a return expectation “around 20%,” while stressing non-financial outcomes like strengthening “critical industries.” The fund will focus on deep tech—“AI, quantum, biotech… space”—alongside calls to remove regulatory roadblocks limiting pension, insurance, and bank participation in patient risk capital.
Good morning and welcome everybody here in Sherpa Village in Davos. And a very warm welcome to all of you joining us online. My name is Sebastian Mattis. I'm the editor of Handelsblatt, Germany's business daily. Now, Europe is bursting with world class ideas in research and tech and entrepreneurship. Yet too often those ideas stall before they scale, and promising companies are ending up to look for capital elsewhere. So this is exactly what we are going to talk about today. We are going to discuss the launch of the Scale Up Europe Fund, a new market driven, privately managed growth and late stage investment vehicle that brings together public and private capital from Europe. A quick note to our audience, online. So if you want to join the discussion, please use the hashtag f26 26. And a quick note for you here in the audience. We will have time for questions later. So, get ready to join the conversation. And, now I'm delighted to welcome our distinguished panelists. First of all, Katarina Sarajevo, European Commissioner for startups, Research and Innovation. And having this idea for the new fund. Kasim Kutay, chief executive officer of Novo Holdings from Denmark and one of the founding investors of the new fund, and Marcus Wallenberg, who is the chair of several major Nordic investment industry institutions, including Wallenberg Investments AB and Seb, and also a founding investor in the new fund. So welcome to all of you, Commissioner. Let's start off with you. To those hearing about this fund the first time, what exactly is the Scale Up Europe Fund in plain terms, and how is it organized within the EU?
Good morning to everybody. And I'm really delighted to be in, in such company. And actually I will start by expressing my gratitude first to Novo Nordisk, because holding Novo holding. Sorry, that, they were really the first who, believed in this idea. And we worked together to, convene others, investors, to join us in the goal that we have first to keep, as you said, the excellent talent and startups that we have in Europe to help them to scale, to become global from Europe and, to show, the other investors and the money that we have in Europe that actually this is a good business and to invest in, develop scale ups is a good business is profitable so that we believe that this fund will have, effect much broader than, the companies that we are going to invest, but also to motivate and create ecosystems and to motivate institutional investors and, others to invest in our deeptech excellent companies. And of course, then, Wallenberg joining us, helped us to convince the others. So we already have, actually commitment from ten, 10,000 investors. We did manage to raise 2.5 billion. And the goal is to reach 5 billion, fund. So two main objectives keep the companies in Europe, help them to become global champions and, show that it's profitable and it's a good business.
Can you talk a little bit about the timeline, especially on appointing the new investment manager that you are trying to do right now. When should we realistically expect the first investments to be made?
Hopefully by summer latest. So, we started to work on this fund eight months ago. We were thinking, okay, we have created, through Horizon Europe programme, European Innovation Council fund, the biggest, deep tech VC in Europe, but is for early stage. And we did supported so many startups in deep tech startups in Europe. And what we miss is of course a big growth fund. And I really believe that we have everything in Europe. We are rich continent, we have the capital, we have the best talent, the best talent in the world. Because I believe the fierce competition is not about the money, as some people think, and about how big you are, how many territories you have and natural resources. It's about how many talented people we can attract. So we have this here. We have the best educated continent in the world and we are big market. We are 450 million people, wealthy people. So I was thinking, okay, we should stop complaining that somebody is missing somebody, something is missing and we should really look what we have and work together. I think this is key. So we started months ago, thinking that it's good to create a really public private fund, work together on market conditions. Have we have such a big expertise in the private sector. So we managed to, raise this, 2.5. We met, actually in October, altogether, because of course, we meet many times, working together before that, we commit to the timetable. We, before the Christmas, actually announce the procedure to select the fund manager. Now, we are in the procedure of selecting together the fund manager, hopefully to be selected until end of February. And then, of course, hopefully starting the investment. So it's quite time.
And investment will be made in summer. The first.
Investment essence. We have to act fast.
Okay. So so we can expect first investments in summer. .
By summer I hope it's spring. Okay. Right. Yeah.
Okay. So so you mentioned 5 billion. Will the fund grow over the next years, or is that the main aim to reach 5 billion?
Yeah. Hope you grow. I mean.
Because in global comparison, that's.
My question. Ambitious, but ambition. But, now we start with 2.5.
Okay. Because, when you look at what Microsoft is investing, only in one quarter, it's 35 billion, right? So, Kasim Kutay, maybe, start with you. What did you think when you heard about the initiative the first time? And why? Why did you join?
Thank you. And it is a pleasure to be here. And I am very excited to be talking about this, this initiative, I when I first heard about it, I was very encouraged. And, we started focusing on trying to get this project off the ground with the EU, with other great investors, that are represented today by, by by Marcus, of course, but, but other investors to try and get this off the ground, as soon as possible. And the reason why it's particularly exciting for us and I think resonates to us as Scandinavians in particular. And I can say this because I'm, I'm not Scandinavian, I'm British. But, you know, the one thing that impresses me so much about Scandinavia is I don't think there's ever a meeting that you sit in where the word society and community doesn't come up, which means, you know, whatever we do, even if it's for financial return. And by the way, our financial returns are, are very strong. There's always a, a sense of what does that mean for our societies, for our communities? How do we spread wealth? And, very importantly, a real sense that we are of the societies that we operate in and very successful. And so, it was really that context. I think it's very important to understand that cultural context. Why we, we we jumped onto this, very quickly. The other reason that I felt very passionate about this is, and perhaps a bit cliche, and we're all talking about this today, but the world, is in a very, very different place. And I am convinced that if Europe can do the right thing, it has an incredibly important role to play, in, in this brave new world that we are facing in terms of what Europe stands for. And I think the success of Europe at many levels, in my view, has never, never been important. So, the idea that we can harness the incredible talent that Europe has that Ekaterina mentioned, it just hasn't been harnessed in the right way. The capital is there. I mean, we're going to do a first close. This has moved so quickly. We're going to do a first close, probably this spring at about 3 billion. And we haven't really started an aggressive fundraise. The talent is here. The startups are here. The universities are here. And to have a, a setup, and a fund, that looks to really harness and galvanize those ingredients and those capabilities to show what Europe can really do when it gets its act together. I think is, really heartening and I think is important. And I think we're going to need to do a lot more of it. Can you.
Can you talk a little bit about the ambition? We heard 5 billion, maybe 20 billion. Do we not have to talk about bigger amounts like 100, 200 billion to really close the gap?
Well, we have to talk about a lot of things. Number one, we do have to talk about, a lot more capital, but I think this is a terrific start. And let's see how it goes. Right? But but I don't view this as, you know, the final answer, I think in terms of public private partnership. And this is a great example of public private partnership, and we need more of it. But if we can make this work, I think it'll it'll encourage more public private partnership. But also will be a blueprint for how else we can deploy capital, for the rest of Europe. But I do want and perhaps we can come to it a little bit later. But Ekaterina talked a lot about, you know, stop the whining. Look at all the great things that Europe can do. But I do think that Europe and the EU in particular, we do need to face the reality that there are still obstacles. And I think the EU has a very important role in dealing, with some of these issues. Otherwise, I do fear that the long term patient risk capital that exists in the US will never really take off in Europe. And I'm thinking about some of the regulations around our insurance companies. I'm talking about the lack of appetite of our banks to invest in a patient long term way, despite the fact that European banks have never been have never had stronger balance sheets. I'm talking about very nascent markets, like the securitization, one that should have developed a lot more by now. So, Ekaterina, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I will challenge you. I think, you you you're absolutely right about the positive things, but I would urge you, to really, really focus on a lot of other things that need to get sorted out within the context of, financial strength. And I've just mentioned a few, and I think the EU needs to do a lot more, and it needs to do it very quickly.
We come to that in a minute. Marcus Wallenberg, you have no shortage of global options for investment. Why did you decide to become a founding investor? And, what would success look like for you in returns?
I think that let me start in another angle here, because I like to follow up on the discussion about Europe and the possibilities. I also work in the banking world. We've been trying to do a banking union and a capital markets union in Europe, and we have not succeeded despite, debates for 15 years plus, this is a significant, part of the discussion for Europe in the future. But now there are a number of initiatives going on. So you have to really think about what are the options if you can't get this going right now? I think the commission is thinking extremely constructively around things like the 28th regime, deepening the single market and this on top addresses, I think something that, we have all, we should really basically be, quite positive about, when we do the look at, and I'm also associated with ECT. And when we look at the, geography of, the startup situation in Europe, I mean, there are 100 plus unicorns in the European space as it is today. So we have a tremendously good university system. So there is nothing wrong in the possibilities of talent, both on the university side or on the, on the startup side. So what are we actually trying to do here? We're trying to see to that. I'm sure that we like for companies to stay in Europe. And I think that is extremely important. But the most important thing to me is that we need some sort of mechanism to really, find an ecosystem to support these companies to grow, and not to immediately find their way outside. And there are many aspects of what we're trying to solve in Europe. One thing is, I think the United States primarily are better at being more forward leaning in their mentality. But also here, I think there is a change that I see in Europe. I think this discussion that we're starting to scale up fund also has shown that we are serious about getting European companies to grow. I think also geopolitical events lately has made people say, let's, you know, we have to basically support a European structure to go and, to go on in this direction. You can talk about, the returns. I would say that around 20%, something like that is, is what people probably would expect to come in on here. I think there will be probably a mix of views on what the return should be, depending if you come from the public side or from the private side. But I do think that it's extremely important that this basically will be a market driven, exercise that we are finding a governance structure here that will support it, because that will also help us in what we just discussed. The possibility to drive more fund scale up in the future. As you pointed out, this is a relatively modest ambition right now, but I think it's important for, this team to really show, I mean, the managing team to really show that they will have traction in building, you know, getting some critical industries.
And then 100 billion would be possible in a couple of years.
And then and then maybe, you know, if this is moving in the right direction, I think there is a possibility to continue the traction. But I think we have to get going first.
Can can you both share how much money did you put in in the new fund? Sure.
I'm happy to, we have committed €500 million over, you know, the ten year life of the fund. So, it's, it's quite, a quite a substantial amount.
We have not decided yet exactly how much, but we will be not at that level, but still, we think that the 5 billion is achievable. Yeah, but I think it's important both for you and for me, that this market, that actually the governance system will be a really market driven thing. Absolutely.
That is.
I would say it's important for me as well. I really believe in the market.
That's what I want.
To do. I believe in the market.
Can you can you talk a little bit about industries the new fund might focus in?
Yeah. Allow me first to, to, to address some of the, things that, Kasim and Marcus just said. And I absolutely aligned with what you said. It's of course we have obstacles. And, but I when I said in the beginning, stop complaining, I mean, I meant that, okay, we know the obstacles. We know our strengths and our weaknesses, and that's a good start. So and we know how to actually address. And both of you said the panacea is a single market. And very often I receive a question because we did propose the first ever startup scale strategy with 26 sections. Choose three, scale fund is announced there. And now we talk about scale fund. And I think this is one of the most important initiatives that, we are going as commission to present in our mandate. But the truth is that the choose one and this is complete, the single market. So if I can choose even not three, I choose one. So but we cannot wait. Of course, we have a lot of initiatives in progress. You mentioned a couple of them, actually. They are key institutional investors. We have some we are looking and we did propose actually amendment in our legislation to untap this potential. There are also some national obstacles. There are some member states who are really very restrictive. They don't allow, not no investments in risk capital, both of their insurance companies, but also pension funds. So we are working on that. We have very strict, and very clear strategy, that and the banking. So, but we cannot just wait. And that's why we are thinking let's, let's create something. Let's show. And I believe that we're going to motivate also the pension funds to, to invest in, in our voices. Let's, let's do together, something so, you may you ask about and now I hope that I will be, to, to go back on the, on your question. on industry. On industries. Deeptech. It will be a deeptech fund. I'm not going to surprise, everybody now is talking about AI, including here in Davos. AI, quantum, biotech. So, you know, the things, that space, we are going to invest in those technologies. I think it's very important to say this, because I believe that we have a huge potential in Europe. And I believe that, we should really start investing, including through the public funds, and be much more open to the investments in Europe. I'm working on that. We did propose for the next MFF to open the whole next horizon for those technologies. Now, it's, discussions are ongoing in the council. I believe it's opportunity is opportunities. We don't invest. So more or less, these are the of course.
The hope the EU will increase the amount of money that it puts in the fund in the next couple of years.
Look, I agree with, with, Kasim and Marcus. Let's start. And I think the fact that, You're right. Marcus. Kasim, we are close to 3 billion. Actually, yes, more than 2 to 2.5. The fact that for less than eight months, we managed to agree on the principles, on the structure of the fund, how it works, on the sectors that we are going to invest on the goals of the fund and to commit the almost 3 billion, so fast. And in less than a year, we will be able to invest. I think it's it's a really good start. Yeah. Have.
You.
Been surprised. that the Kasim said we even didn't start to make really aggressive, fundraising? So I'm optimist.
Have you been surprised? The EU can be so quick?
I've been. I have to say, I've been, very pleasantly, surprised. Now, in part, of course, it's within the context of a public private partnership because, you know, as a private entity, just, like the various companies that Mark is associated with, we, you know, we like to make decisions and move and move pretty quickly. But I have to say, hats off to Ekaterina, for her passion and commitment. In driving this, I did not think we would be talking today about a first close of about 3 billion this spring. This quickly. And again, it just shows what we in Europe can do if we focus on it. And if we remove the bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles.
Can I just I think that we should. You asked me before about return, expectations in my book at this stage in time, I believe that if we're going to be able to attract more funds going forward, we shouldn't forget that. What is it, about €11 trillion or just in the bank accounts of Europe that is not really deployed, but into bank accounts? So if we're going to start attracting people into this, I think we need to add, the dimension in terms of what we look upon as a success, that we are actually addressing some critical industries that we actually can help some of the teams in these companies to grow. Because and that's why I think I come back to the question is so important, because that is going to be the success. We're not going to see any quantitative returns in three years. Probably not, because it's going to take time for these companies to grow. So therefore we just have to have a set of parameters that we really feel are extremely important going forward here. If that can be shown and that we actually show traction in helping these companies, helping some industries to grow, etc., that will be accounting for a lot to see if this has been a good, a good initiative.
Now I would like to open up for Q&A. So if you have a question or a remark, there's the microphone. Yes, please.
Hello. Good morning. And Bernard, I'm the managing partner of Balderton Capital and we are we have submitted an application to you. Okay. I have a question for for you all. You, putting this this fund, the target is about 5 billion. You have decided, if I understand, to put it in the hands of one GP. And I'm I'm just curious about this decision. Or, first of all, is this a decision, or is this still a question mark? If you consider, the ambition of the EU fund, not just this time around, but next time around, the next time around, like the next one would be potentially bigger and so on and so forth. Is there a, an option to actually spread it over? Maybe two to see actually the performance of actually the GP compare it and spread the risk of the, the EU scale up fund, so that, you know, when, when you start moving up, then you have, you know, two potential or three potential, we're we're going in, like anybody else with the concept that it's a one, GP. Right. But I'm just, trying to understand the, the rationale of your current decision.
Do you want to address that, Commissioner?
Yeah, yeah. Look, there are a good first is a good question. And, thank you that, you express your interest. It's a quite a big interest. And I'm agree with Marcus. It is really key. This process, in my first to be transparent, fair and to choose the best that we have, in Europe, it's key for the success of the fund. I'm absolutely agree. So I'm very grateful that we work very, very good with, founding investors on that. There were there were discussions about that. I'll be very frank. My first opinion was like yours that we have to have 2 or 3 to compete. And in the end, during the discussions with the with the founding investors and, also looking at the rules, we decided, let's, let's go on doesn't mean that they cannot make a consortium and work together of, of what we have. So, we decided together. So now we go to one when, if growth and if we reach 20 billion, then we would think for, for maybe more.
So Marcus Wallenberg, you are, deeply connected to, to the finance industry all over Europe. So how is the reaction to the new fund and how big is the interest so far?
I think the basic, the basic reaction has been positive. But we should remember that, as Kasim was saying earlier, this is one of the first public private partnerships in earnest that we're trying to do now in a very, very important field. So I think there are also people who are saying, okay, let's see what what comes out of this. And that's up to, to, to the managers and us all to, to prove that we can actually make a difference here. I think that's going to be an important part.
I fully agree.
Kasim, let's before we wrap up, just address one question that is does Europe have when it comes to emerging technologies have a, advantage, maybe a USP? Is there one field you would look at right now and one field that we should strengthen a lot more?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know about USP, but what I would say is that at the basic research level, and at the basic science level, we, we are on par, with any other jurisdiction. I'm thinking obviously primarily, us and and Asia here. So we have that ingredient. You know, the question is, how do they scale? So and I'm not talking about we're not talking here about the initial angel money or series A, it's really once you get into the growth phase and you need to scale aggressively where you need a lot of capital, a lot more capital. You need a bigger risk appetite. You probably need a longer time horizon. And this is what, this, this fund is going to address. But I think, you know, if you look at what we're doing in quantum and AI, you can say, you know, the US and China are ahead of us, but actually, I'm not sure on the quantum fund on the side because Denmark and sorry, I can't speak for other jurisdictions. Maybe others are doing the same. But what Denmark is doing and has been doing on the Quantum Fund for the last four years is truly, truly impressive. You know, it is. We are a meaningful quantum player, on the bioscience life science side, which is very dear to my heart. We were as good, if not better than anyone. The three largest drugs in the world today originated from Europe.
And they're not are really good to build these ecosystems. So what are the.
Well, let me get to this because this is really important and it just shows the power of when you do things in the right way, Europe. And I'm talking purely life sciences here. Okay. Biopharma Europe basic research and research publications is on par with the US. Where we fall off the cliff is translating that into companies. The only country in Europe that has closed the gap with Boston, Massachusetts, where you have the greatest biotech startups, is Denmark. And it's for one reason only. It's because of a spin off from the Novo Nordisk Foundation eight years ago called the Bioinnovation Institute, and has provided funding, mentoring, and lab and office space to startups and has encouraged academics to become entrepreneurs. And we are now producing per capita companies at the same level as the US. So it is absolutely doable. We are, of course, not on par on everything. AI is being dominated by the US and China quantum. I think we will do well. Biotech, life science. Absolutely. As good as if not better than than than than anyone else. Planetary health. Let's not forget planetary health. Decarbonization. Green tech. I think Europe is as as good as anywhere else. So there will be no shortage of companies to, to, to support. And the wonderful thing is, if we support them with that sort of long term capital, they can stay here, they can grow here, and benefit, the continent overall.
To make that happen very short, we have to wrap up, in one sentence, what really has to change in the European mindset to achieve that goal? This question goes to all of you, Marcus Wallenberg, you go first, please.
I think it belongs very much in the camp of mentality that we believe we can do it. And, and, now, there has to be determination and it has to be on all fronts. And what I mean, all fronts. It has to be on the government level. It has to be at EU level. It has to be at the business level and academia that you really want and believe that you can make a difference.
I'd say two things I would encourage, Ekaterina and her colleagues to continue on the path of public private partnerships, pick our brain, ask business how we can help them. And then I would make the plea again to Ekaterina, and the EU to move with urgency to recognize the roadblocks that our insurance companies face, our pension funds face our banks face in being able to deploy long term risk capital. If we can solve that, I think, we will be in a much, much better place.
Commissioner.
To be able to solve that. I think what we really need that, I know that it may sound like cliche, but I really believe this is, really everything. And this is like, like one, like union, because all the things that, an obstacles that we have, it's really, again, I will repeat myself, it's linked to complete the single market. And, I know it's easy to say, difficult to achieve, but I really believe that if we don't achieve it now in this geopolitical situation, we are never going to achieve it. So let's let's do it. We know what, have to be done. We have a plan. We have a really good partners and working together with the private sector, but also with the governments. Let's act like one and do it.
Thank you. Let's do it. So, thank you for all of you for being here. And I think we got a clearer picture on what the fund is about. Looking forward to keep the conversation and see what, what it will achieve in the next couple of years. So thank you very much.
Thank you.