Introduced by Andreas Munk Holm, this EUVC Live at GoWest series spotlights the thought leadership of policymakers, institutional investors, GPs, corporates, and public capital leaders around one defining question:
How does Europe mobilise its own capital to secure its technological future?
Across all sessions, one unifying theme emerges:
Europe does not lack talent.
It does not lack innovation.
It does not lack savings.
It lacks coordination.
EIF: Catalyst, Anchor or Competitor?
The series opens its final segment with Adem Yakışırer, Senior Investment Manager at the European Investment Fund (EIF).
In Catalyst or Competitor? Why the European Investment Fund Exists and How It Shapes Venture, Yakışırer outlines how EIF has backed more than 1,600 fund managers and built a financing continuum from pre-seed to pre-IPO.
EIF is often described as Europe’s quiet giant. It is everywhere in the venture ecosystem, yet rarely fully understood. Founders remember their first investor. GPs remember their first LP. But few can clearly describe the infrastructure that makes those first commitments possible at scale.
That is EIF’s role.
Yakışırer explains why EIF exists, how it actually operates, and why its function is not simply to invest but to build the financing continuum. Over three decades, EIF has backed more than 1,600 fund managers and deployed over €50 billion across the European market. Its mandate spans pre-seed to pre-IPO, with a structural goal: ensuring Europe has an investable venture ecosystem in the first place.
The core argument is that EIF should not be viewed as a market substitute. It should be understood as a market enabler. It anchors first-time managers. It stabilizes fundraising across cycles. It crowds in private LPs. And it strengthens strategic sectors where private capital alone remains thin.
But the keynote also raises an uncomfortable tension.
If EIF is the institution that holds the system together, it also becomes the gravitational center of the system. The stronger it becomes, the more dependent the ecosystem risks become. Public capital can function as a signal. It can also function as a crutch.
That tension becomes explicit in the fireside discussion with Mia Grosen, Venture Parner at SuperSeed and Andreas Munk Holm. The tone turns candid. The questions shift from "What does EIF do?” to "What does EIF’s dominance mean?”
Is Europe becoming structurally dependent on public anchor investors? Should institutional backing be treated as validation, or does it distort market discipline? And how should policy priorities—technological sovereignty, defense, deep tech—shape private market behaviour?
EIF strengthens the ecosystem.
But it also defines it.
Across the series, the conclusion converges.
Europe’s challenge is not talent. It is not innovation. It is not even savings. It is coordination. And EIF is one of the few institutions explicitly designed to solve that problem at the system level.
If Europe wants technological sovereignty and long-term competitiveness, capital cannot remain fragmented. It must move with intent, alignment, and scale.
