As EU member states are set to sign off on a series of broad commitments to transform the bloc’s digital agenda, the World Economic Forum (WEF) today released a great report entitled 'Bridging the Gap in European Scale-up Funding: The Green Imperative in an Unprecedented Time' (PDF link).
In the interest of full disclosure, I have recently become a member of the WEF's Digital Leaders community, and this group of founders, investors, corporate executives and other European tech industry stakeholders have volunteered their time (and in our case, data and insights) to actively work on this report, which is part of the organisation's wider Digital Europe initiative.
"This paper addresses a triple challenge – improving access to growth-stage capital, the ability to direct this toward green technology, and doing so during the pandemic and economic disruption. Four ideas are proposed: improved interaction with European institutions; using innovative funding structures; redesigning procurement; and giving founders a voice on regulation."
For more information, also check out the report launch blog post from Martina Larkin, Head of Regional Strategies, Europe and Eurasia for the World Economic Forum, which discusses 4 ways to scale up Europe's green technology through better funding.
In a nutshell, they are:
1) Streamline access to public funding for innovation 2) Apply blended finance to scale Europe’s industrial transformation 3) Create public and private procurement opportunities 4) Give European growth companies a voice on policy and standards
I'm slightly biased, but the full report is well worth a read. Download the free paper here.
It's a follow-up to a paper published in January 2019, which now feels like a decade ago but is also still worth a look: Innovate Europe. Competing for Global Innovation Leadership (PDF).
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