The announcement made in Athens in the presence of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Iliana Ivanova
LIFTT has been selected as one of the members of the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Trusted Investors Network, an initiative that brings together forward-thinking investors with the aim of co-investing and growing Europe’s most innovative deep-tech start-ups, with the support of the European Union. This network operates in collaboration with the EIC Fund, which is part of the European research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe.
The initiative was launched on 21 October in Athens by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, with the aim of:
- Facilitating co-investment opportunities to fuel the growth of Europe’s next generation of deep-tech start-ups;
- Offering a collaborative platform for investors, promoting knowledge exchange and driving Europe’s innovation agenda forward;
- Building stronger investment communities around critical technologies.
During the EIC Scaling Summit, which brought together for the first time 120 companies selected from the EIC portfolio and national programmes, 71 investors from across Europe formed the first Network group by signing the Trusted Investors Network Charter, a document setting out the goals to be achieved and the shared values to be upheld in order to build and grow innovative companies in Europe through joint investments with the EIC Fund. These 71 investors, which include venture capital funds, public investment banks, foundations and corporate venture capital (CVC), collectively represent over 90 billion euros in assets, making the initiative a key resource to mobilise capital for Europe’s deep-tech sector. The network is open to any qualified institutional investor who meets certain criteria, including having a high level of expertise in deep-tech investments, and who shares the interest and commitment to co-invest with the EIC Fund.
The launch of the Trusted Investors Network is the result of a thorough preparatory process that began in Brussels on 21 February, when Commissioner Iliana Ivanova met for the first time with leading European investors to discuss their needs and design a new form of cooperation. The aim was not just to listen to their requests, but to transform them into something actionable, by launching an innovative, solid and concrete programme, something that Europe had never seen before. Months of intense discussion and planning in close collaboration with investors led to the creation of the Network, an ambitious but practical initiative designed to carry out tangible investment transactions and capable of meeting the challenges and needs of investors and innovative start-ups. In particular, the network responds to the increasing need for financing of deep-tech companies in Europe, a sector with high growth potential but often limited by the difficulty of finding suitable investors in the European market. The network provides a solid basis for future development, in line with the European Commission’s political guidelines aimed at promoting research and innovation, key drivers of Europe’s future competitiveness and growth.
The network also plays a fundamental role in making full use of the opportunities offered by the EIC, through its fund. The EIC Fund is a dedicated fund set up by the European Commission to invest in companies selected through the EIC Accelerator Programme. Supported by the European Investment Bank, it aims to support more than 500 companies over the period 2021-2027. To date, the EIC Fund has invested nearly 1 billion euros in 251 European start-ups, attracting co-investments of more than 4 billion euros from around 1,000 investors. Thanks to the Trusted Investors Network, these co-investment opportunities will continue to grow consistently, giving companies working in critical technologies access to the funding they need to compete globally.
Becoming a member of the EIC’s Trusted Investors Network is not only a recognition of LIFTT‘s commitment to innovation, but also an opportunity to partner with leading investors and contribute to the growth of Europe’s most disruptive deep-tech start-ups. We are proud to be part of this network and to be working to support the future of technology innovation in Europe.