Scaleup funds are becoming a fixture of European tech finance, according to a Sifted column. The piece argues that dedicated later-stage vehicles have moved from an afterthought to a core part of the funding landscape, with large pools of capital now aimed at startups that have outgrown early-stage VC.
The column points to major institutional backing, including the European Investment Fund and the British Business Bank, as evidence that governments and public institutions are treating scaleup investing as a priority. It also cites a Swedish investment firm’s view that later-stage deals are increasingly being sized in the hundreds of millions or billions.
Fund managers quoted in the piece describe a market where the gap between venture capital and public markets is being filled by specialist scaleup funds. The article suggests this is a structural shift, not a temporary cycle, though it also notes the challenges of deploying capital at scale.