The fund benefits from a €37.5 million (around 23% of total capital raised) participation through the European Commission's ESCALAR programme managed by European Investment Fund (EIF) and backed by the Investment Plan for Europe.

The investment strategy of eEquity focuses on e-commerce and internet retailing with global reach.

The new fund aims to invest between €3 million and €15 million in up to 12 European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said: “The EU supports European high-growth companies to increase access to risk capital they need to grow. This is even more pertinent now that the coronavirus crisis further deepened the financing needs for scale-ups. The high number of applications for the ESCALAR pilot programme and this first signature prove that with this instrument we are filling a market gap for the benefit of high-growth businesses.” 

ESCALAR is a new investment approach, developed by the Commission together with the EIF, that will support venture capital and growth financing for promising companies, enabling them to scale up in Europe and help reinforce Europe's economic and technological sovereignty.

It will provide up to €300 million aiming to increase the investment capacity of venture capital and private equity funds, triggering investments of up to €1.2 billion, or four times the original investment, to support promising companies.

More information

• Joint press release from the European Commission and EIF: European Scale-up Action for Risk Capital (ESCALAR) kicks off
• The ESCALAR programme
• Venture capital