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The EU will provide 25 percent of the capital and is inviting
private investors to put up to three times more funding, which
would bring the overall size of the fund to up to 1.6 billion
euros, according to Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for
research, science and innovation.
Moedas made the announcement at the Web Summit being held in
Lisbon, one of Europe's biggest venues for tech startups.
"In Europe we have a problem - companies are created and are
then bought by venture capital funds from other parts of the
world," Moedas told reporters. "So the idea is to create a fund
to allow them to be created in Europe and then stay in Europe."
Moedas said there is no shortage of new companies created in
Europe, but the problem is to scale them up, or finance growth
after the initial phase.
The European Commission is inviting fund managers to apply to
lead the new venture capital fund with a deadline for
applications of Jan. 31, 2017.
(Reporting by Axel Bugge; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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