- Posted 02-Nov-2020
First six Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technology funds backed by InnovFin raise a total of EUR 700m
The European Innovation Fund (EIF) has signed the first 6 equity agreements with venture capital funds to support businesses across Europe under the EU's InnovFin Artificial Intelligence/Blockchain pilot.
Digital startups and SMEs in early- and growth stages can now apply for financing from the six funds:, 42CAP III GmbH & Co. KG, Dawn Capital IV SCSp, Fly Ventures Fund II GmbH & Co. KG, HenQ 4 Fund Cooperatief U.A., Open Ocean Fund 2020 Ky and Speedinvest III EuVECA GmbH & Co. KG.
The cumulative total fund size of EUR 700m supports investments in the tech sector, including scalable Artificial Intelligence/Blockchain Technologies (AI/BT) activities. The funds will deploy this new finance to target sectors in early and growth stage companies, including B2B software, data/analytics, IoT, Smart Cities, automation, language and machine learning, Saas, Fintech, cybersecurity and the future of work.
To-date, there has been a very strong demand from the market and more than 60% of the EUR 100m risk-sharing allocation set out in the initial InnovFin AI/BT pilot has already been committed. A promising additional pipeline is expected to materialise by the end of the year/early 2021.
The EU's InnovFin AI/BT pilot invests into venture capital funds whose strategies target AI/BT activities, as well as co-investments alongside equity funds into companies operating in these sectors. The new EFSI backed funds were announced following the launch of the European Commission's Digital Finance Package, allowing the EIF and the EC to continue further scaling-up a strategic cooperation in the next Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) under InvestEU and in line with complementary activities under the Digital Europe Programme.
EIF's participation in the funds was made possible by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the main pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe of the European Commission.
The resource allocation to potential funds and / or co-investments into companies will be considered on first-come-first-assessed basis of the expressions of interest depending on the merits of the proposal. Additional information on the AI/BT pilot can be found in the Addendum to Annex II of the EFSI Equity Instrument Call for Expression of Interest section on the EIF's website.
Source: European Commission Press Corner (https://bit.ly/34LPCVb)