The European Union is launching an AI and blockchain investment program due to a significant investment gap in these technologies compared to North America and Asia, where the EU lags with only €3-4 billion. This initiative aims to support the development and scaling of innovative AI and blockchain startups through enhanced access to finance, particularly equity financing, while addressing geographic disparities in investment. The program will also provide enabling services and technical assistance to strengthen the investment ecosystem in Europe and promote regional equity in digital innovation.

1. European Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain
Investment Programme
Investment Gap for AI and Blockchain technologies: Empirical data show that North
America is currently dominating the AI market, with China making important progress and
catching up fast. Europe seems to be in the danger of lagging behind in global markets, with
investments focused with $15-$23 bn in North America, $8- $12bn in Asia and only $3-4 bn
in Europe.
The EU—AI/Blockchain Investment Fund enhances the access to finance, in particular in
the form of equity, to innovative and higher risk AI and blockchain SMEs and startups.
 first European investment program specially dedicated to support AI and Blockchain
technologies
 aims to support the further development of new markets that focus on the development
and adoption of innovative AI and Blockchain technologies
 provides improved dedicated financial support to innovative startups and SMEs at
both the early stage and scale-up phases;
 focused on equity and quasi-equity financing, since most AI and Blockchain
companies are either early stage or high-growth companies;
 aims to provide financing to innovative startups and SMEs based on a broad
geographic coverage in Europe, including less developed innovation ecosystems
An urgent need for the EU to intervene since there is an important market failure for
AI/Blockchain technologies in Europe:
o relatively low level of investments form the private sector in Europe (key
difference to the US- in China- there is a lot of public investments
o lack of financing for innovative AI/Blockchain startups since it is considered
too risky for private investors

2. o EU-startups face important barriers to scaling up their businesses
 Unbalanced geographic coverage of private investments. Private investments in AI
and Blockchain are primilarly focused on a certain geographic hubs, i.e. London,
Paris, Stockholm and Berlin.
 The current underinvestment in less developed markets (i.e. CEE countries) is an
important concern, since it might lead to the further increase of existing regional
inequalities in terms of the digital maturity of SMEs, industry and the public sector in
Europe.
 A European Initiative is key to broaden the geographic reach of the existing
investments
Program Implementation:
 The proposed approach is to implement the investment fund as part of the InvestEU and
Recovery and Resilience Facility that promotes the uptake and scale-up of AI and
blockchain innovations in Europe.
The AI/blockchain investment program enhances investments in AI and blockchain
innovations in Europe by catalysing public funding form the EC and MS to levarge
additional private sector investments.
It provides a set of enabling services, including technical assistance and advisory services to
Member States and innovative companies to support the development of technically and
financially viable investment programs.
Furthermore, it support the development of digital innovation ecosystems through an
Investment Support Program that better connects investors with AI/blockchain innovators
and support the portfolio development of financially viable and technically sound investment
projects.
The programme is being implemented through a phased approach and focuses on the
following activities:
Phase 1: AI/Blockchain Investment fund and Investment Support program (2020)
(i) a dedicated thematic investment fund for AI and Blockchain was developed
through a partnership between European Commission and the European Investment
Fund with total financial contributions from the EC of €100 million.
 The fund has been successful in using EC funds to leverage additional investments
from VC funds and National Promotional Banks. Through the catalytic role of EC
funding, the total investment volume of the fund is reaching €700 million for 2020
alone through co-investments from venture capital funds and NPBs.
 the European Investment Bank (EIB) has launched a co-investment facility for AI
and complementary technologies, such (€150 million). The co-investment facility will
allow the EIB Group to invest alongside funds backed by the EIF in digital startups

3. and SMEs that focus on artificial intelligence (AI) sector and in technologies that
directly complement AI, such as Blockchain, the Internet of Things and robotics.
(ii) the EC is currently implementing through a consortium of partners an investment
support programme1 which develop partnerships with Member States, National
Promotional Banks and private investors (VC funds) to:
i) raise awareness among multiple stakeholders about the importance to increase
investments in AI/blockchain innovations;
ii) carry out a series of market consultations with a broad range of stakeholders from
governments, the private sector and investors
iii) better connect digital innovators with investors
iv) support the portfolio development of technically and financially viable projects;
Phase 2: Scale-up of AI/Blockchain investment Fund (2021-2027)
 Scale-up the existing EU investment AI/Blockchain fund to a fully developed
Deep Tech Investment Platform for strategic digital technologies
 The investment platform will pool financial resources from the EC with resources
from Member States, National Promotional Banks and private investors;
 The Deep Tech investment platform will broaden the reach of the
AI/Blockchain investment fund to include key strategic digital innovations,
including the Internet of Things, fabless semiconductors; 5 G services, HPC
applications and quantum technologies;
 Develop jointly with Member States co-investment models through the InvestEU
and Recovery and Resilience Facility to maximize the effectiveness, geographic
reach and impact of the investment program;
To enhance the knowledge and technical capacity of Member States and innovative
companies related to the use of financial instruments that support the development and
adoption of strategic digital technologies in Europe, the program will provide the following
support services:
 to provide technical assistance to Member States and public project promoters in the
design and use of EU-supported financial instruments;
 to support public project promoters and digital startups and SMEs through advisory
services on how to enhance the technical and financial viability of digital investment
projects and enhance their investment readiness;
 to implement an investment support program to better connect digital innovators with
investors; to raise the awareness of investors about the opportunities of deep tech
investments and to support the portfolio development of bankable investment projects.
1 DeepTech for Digital Transformation Launchpad (DT2) https://www.dt2invest.com/

4. Update prepared by:
Björn-Sören Gigler
Senior Digital Innovation Specialist
Digital Innovation and Blockchain Unit
Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
Avenue de Beaulieu 33, 1160 Brussels/Belgium
Email: bjorn-soren.gigler@ec.europa.eu
Background Information:
Forging new ideas in financing digital innovations
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/blogposts/forging-new-frontiers-finance-digital-
innovations
EU investment fund supports Euro 700 Mill investments in AI and Blockchain technologies
through VC funds
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_1991
EIB provides Euro 150 Mill to support AI and complementary technologies
https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2020-334-eib-group-provides-eur150-million-to-support-artificial-
intelligence-companies
EU-Blockchain program: Funding and investments
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/blockchain-funding-and-investment
EIF-Why do we need to support AI and blockchain in Europe
https://medium.com/@eif4smes/why-do-we-need-to-support-blockchain-and-ai-in-europe-
30a122383f33
EIF: Call for proposal for Venture capital and private equity fund managers
https://www.eif.org/what_we_do/equity/efsi/index.htm