Luxembourg Supports Scale-up Europe Technological Initiative

On Tuesday 8 February 2022, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, and Minister of Finance, Yuriko Backes, signed a joint statement confirming Luxembourg's interest in participating in the "Scale-up Europe" initiative to accelerate the emergence of European technological champions.

Launched by France, the initiative aims to promote access to financing for European companies during their growth phase. Luxembourg is one of the fifteen Member States to support this initiative.

The "Scale-up Europe" responds to the strategic need to create a European financing ecosystem to help companies find the capital necessary for their development. This particularly concerns the more advanced stages of financing, when companies seek to raise large amounts on the private markets. To this end, the initiative provides for the creation of a fund of funds managed and administered under a technical mandate by the European Investment Fund (EIF), whose head office is in Luxembourg. The governance, technical mandates and operational details of this fund of funds will be determined in the coming months. In this context, closer collaboration between the national development banks and institutions of the participating Member States will also be sought.

Minister Backes said: "The Luxembourg financial centre already plays a leading role today in the financing of innovative companies. By joining the 'Scale-up Europe' initiative, we will succeed in boosting this role of the marketplace with the aim of creating the tech giants of tomorrow. Through the new sources of funding, the emergence of technological champions will be accelerated, which will contribute to ensuring Europe's digital sovereignty".

Minister Fayot emphasised: "The 'Scale-up Europe' initiative joins the efforts made at the national level to meet the financing needs of start-ups and make the Grand Duchy a land of welcome for young innovative companies. By showing its support for the initiative, Luxembourg is demonstrating its commitment to the creation of a European ecosystem that promotes the development of technology companies with a global vocation".