The European Commission has announced the launch of a new initiative designed to boost the continent’s startups by removing barriers to scaling up in the single market and creating better opportunities to access finance and skills. The EC’s 'Startup and Scaleup Initiative' pulls together all the possibilities that the EU already offers and adds a new focus on venture capital investment, insolvency law and taxation. Above all, the EC and the European Investment Bank Group are launching a Pan-European Venture Capital Fund of Funds, with the EU providing cornerstone investments of up to a maximum budget of EUR 400 million and the fund manager required to raise at least three times as much from private sources, triggering a minimum of EUR 1.6 billion in venture capital funding.
The new funding mechanism complements existing EU instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), Europe's programme for small and medium-sized enterprises COSME and the EU's research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020. The Commission is also working on a range of taxation simplifications including the recent proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB), which proposes to support small and innovative companies that want to expand their business across borders.
The initiative also puts emphasis on helping navigate regulatory requirements, improving innovation support through reforms to Horizon 2020, and fostering ecosystems where startups can connect with potential partners such as investors, business partners, universities and research centres.
