The European Investment Bank (EIB) has called for an increase in EU innovation financing in a report to strengthen the region’s technological leadership, according to Odaily Planet Daily. The report highlights the “urgent need” to remove investment barriers in order to direct funds to key areas of the EU market.

The report mentions the importance of increasing investment in scale-up companies to maintain the EU's technological advantage and global competitiveness. Therefore, closing the financing gap for these companies is seen as key to advancing green technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing technologies.

The EIB highlighted this theme in the aforementioned technologies back in June 2021, when it published a similar report titled “Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the Future of Europe.” The EIB said that the limited size and depth of EU capital markets posed a major challenge to innovative companies, especially during the expansion phase when financing was scarce.