While recently reading the biography of Nobel Prize-winner Sir Demis Hassabis - The Infinity Machine - I was taken by a passage from his early years in which he cites a film about Cambridge nudging him to undertake his studies there. More than that, it affected him enough to remain in Europe and keep Deepmind - the company he founded (now part of Google) - headquartered here.
Oxbridge and other storied European universities have been the source of many rainy cobblestone, street-film narratives, perhaps helping many thousands of future entrepreneurs, like Demis, dream about making big things happen in Europe. I would also like to see this become a reality across many dimensions of Europe’s exceptional strengths.
Over the last 12 months, I have had the privilege of representing Invest Europe as Chair and experience first-hand the opportunities and challenges facing European private capital. One of my key missions was to take on the ‘Hollywood gap’ so often applied to Europe: people like simple stories. America is this, Europe is that, Asia is something else…
Instead of a single, simple story, Europe is a layered, epic novel of contradictions. The continent that has given the world much of its intellectual heritage and explorations, including the discovery of America (happy birthday tomorrow!) , has also pioneered some of the most exciting modern inventions like nuclear fission, the world wide web, DNA and gene editing, mobile payments, and some would add, Ferrari!
As is repeated by simple narratives, there are big challenges: an ageing population and under-funded pension systems; a lack of energy independence in places; a still fragmented savings and investments marketplace and a lack of depth for capital market exits. Which is precisely where and why private equity, VC and infrastructure can provide the much-needed transformation.
Over the past 12 months, I have been delighted to see all the ways that the European private capital ecosystem, together with Invest Europe, has come to address these challenges: across defence and energy independence, pension fund reform, the savings and investment union and all grounded by Invest Europe’s authoritative research on performance and job creation.
The research highlights how European lower mid-market private equity, as one specific example, is a critical engine for growth – for the economy, and for businesses themselves, many of which are in high-priority sectors including technology, healthcare/biotech and sustainable infrastructure development. The opportunities are translating in returns : according to Invest Europe’s 2025 Performance Benchmark analysis, mid-market LBOs outperformed over the long-term on the basis of total value to paid-in capital (TVPI), with a 17% net IRR, returning LPs 1.79x their capital, ahead of other segments (1.66x for large/mega deals and 1.75x for small ones). European VC returns have continued to impress with a 19% 10-year net IRR, ahead of other regions by a margin.
Across my travels during my time as Invest Europe Chair, representing the association in places like Singapore and in the US, I was delighted to see the beginning of a shift in global investor sentiment towards Europe.
Beyond the ‘conference feel’ factor, the statistics are starting to illustrate this: attracted by European stability and opportunity, in the face of a more complex global arena – North American investors were the largest contributors to European buyout funds in 2025, accounting for 30% of the total, according to Invest Europe activity data. Drilling down further, lower mid-market allocations from all funds of funds rose over 30% on the previous year, including a more than doubling of North American fund of funds’ commitments to European lower mid-market funds over the prior year.
Such developments reflect the return to a global investment philosophy, and as seen in Invest Europe’s “Quiet Power” communications campaign, which generated millions of views, global investors are reappraising Europe and its return potential.
For global investors, building a sophisticated understanding of the mosaic of opportunities in Europe is an edge for the taking: with a potential universe of 32 million SMEs and 240,000 mid-sized enterprises across the continent, there is much more opportunity to tap.
Europe’s next big things always start with small things – often, just a dream.
Elias Korosis
Member of Invest Europe’s LP Council and past chair
Global Investment Partner, Federated Hermes Private Equity
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