Publications
& Policy

Our 2024 Annual Report, published for the first time also as an online report, provides a comprehensive overview of the association’s key achievements, outlines our priorities for the current year, and sets out our long-term strategic vision.

The Argos Index® was down 3% to 9.5x EBITDA in Q1 2025. The 2024 recovery of mid-market prices was short-lived, as the M&A activity. Transaction multiples declined, at a similar pace, on all market segments: on the lower and upper mid-markets, and for both investment funds and strategic buyers.

An annual survey, undertaken on behalf of Invest Europe, that collects comprehensive and robust activity data on fundraising, investment and divestment from more than 1,750 private equity and venture capital firms in Europe. For the first time, Invest Europe’s data also includes listed private capital investment, highlighting this growing segment and its role in giving listed equities investors a route into private companies.

Detailed evidence and analysis of the European private equity and venture capital industry’s real contribution to employment, in 2023, and job creation, in 2022-23, and the far-reaching impact this has on the people, societies and economies of Europe.

In this paper, we set out our recommendations on the European Commission’s Sustainability Omnibus Proposal of 26 February 2025, including targeted improvements to ensure the framework remains simple, usable, scalable, and aligned with international standards, while supporting long-term value creation.

Invest Europe warmly thanks MEP Hadjipantela for an engaging discussion on his draft report addressing the role of simple tax rules and tax fragmentation in strengthening European competitiveness.

In its response, Invest Europe highlighted key barriers currently limiting PE and VC engagement in defence such regulatory fragmentation, uncertainty around exit pathways, the lack of common definitions and ESG alignment for defence investments, and an underdeveloped public private financing infrastructure to de-risk and scale capital deployment.

Invest Europe’s response to the European Commission’s initiative to strengthen the biotech and life sciences ecosystem outlines key priorities in addressing regulatory barriers in medtech, unlocking early-stage investment, aligning public and private capital, and reducing fragmentation across EU markets, while broadening access to capital from all sources.

Recent geopolitical and policy developments – both within and beyond the EU – are influencing the sustainability conversation.

According to the statistics from the Finnish Venture Capital Association, startup investments continued to decline in Europe, but in Finland the trend was clearly better: investments increased by as much as 56% compared to 2023. The main driver of the growth has been foreign investors, who brought almost €1 billion in new capital to the country.

For the second time running, the European Centre for Entrepreneurship and Policy Reform (ECEPR), with the support of Nordic Capital, identifies the world's 500 leading DeepTech companies and analyses the conditions that foster their growth and their impact on the labour market. The index highlights a significant transformation in the global technology landscape, as emerging hubs in Europe and Asia increasingly challenge North America's traditional dominance.

Focusing on the Horizon Europe portfolio, the report covers approximately 706 start-ups, 402 advanced research projects, and 183 projects aimed at commercialising research results funded between 2021-2024. It also addresses the long-term impacts of projects and companies supported during the EIC pilot phase and its predecessor.

Invest Europe would welcome the opportunity to highlight some key points on the operation of the 'investment fund' exemption (which limits the FSR reporting obligations to the funds involved in the transaction).

Invest Europe's feedback to the European Commission on the proposed amendments to the Taxonomy Delegated Acts, as part of the broader Omnibus simplification package on sustainability, highlighting areas where further clarification and refinement would improve the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed changes.

AIFMD Essentials is a guide allowing every private equity and venture capital manager to get an overview of all the regulatory and legal provisions defined by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive.