Publications
& Policy

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).

The paper tracks financing trends, conditions and policy developments across nearly 50 countries. It provides official data on SME financing from 2007 to 2023, with additional insights for 2024 and early 2025, covering debt, equity, asset-based finance and overall financing conditions.

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.

The Platform on Sustainable Finance, an advisory body to the European Commission, has published an independent report on streamlining sustainable finance for SMEs. The report builds also on the experience with the implementation of the sustainability guarantee under the InvestEU programme (and its accompanying tools) and suggests developing a voluntary, streamlined approach – the “SME sustainable finance standard” – to help SMEs and their lenders or financiers voluntarily demonstrate SMEs’ environmental sustainability performance.

The European Savings & Investments Union offers a real opportunity to adapt once and for all the European regulatory framework for it to mobilize our own wealth to boost our own competitiveness. This position paper details the actions needed from a private equity perspective.

In this paper, Invest Europe highlights the private equity and venture capital industry’s support for the European Commission’s investment Omnibus proposal, focusing on expanding access to public funding for high-growth companies, reducing administrative burdens to enhance investment efficiency, and supporting a unified EU framework - a '28th regime' - to boost cross-border investment and innovation.

The EU regulatory landscape impacts on how venture capital firms can operate in their home countries and across the EU.

The fourth annual European deep tech report. In a pivotal year for deep tech, how is Europe faring, and how has the breakout of AI influenced deep tech priorities and European deep tech credentials.