ETCI 2.0: Europe opens its scale-up fund to mid-sized growth funds, a door for quantum

On 10 July 2026, the EIB Group launched ETCI 2.0, the second phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative, with all 27 EU member states and institutional investors. The target is up to 15 billion euros raised, roughly four times the 2023 initiative, to mobilise up to 80 billion euros into more than 1,500 European scale-ups, through over 100 funds. The EIB Group itself commits up to 1.25 billion euros, and a first closing is expected in the second half of 2026.

The change that matters for quantum is eligibility. The first ETCI only backed mega-funds; ETCI 2.0 also supports mid-sized growth funds above 300 million euros, with average tickets of about 200 million euros per company.

On LinkedIn, Cecile Perrault, executive director of the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC) since 1 September 2026 after leading industrial strategy at Alice & Bob, explains why: European deep-tech and quantum specialists typically raise 200 to 300 million euros, exactly the size the previous instrument left out. Her second point is about where decisions are made. The EU Quantum Act under preparation will not close the funding gap on its own; that happens in financial vehicles like ETCI. Without European equity at growth stage, quantum companies risk being bought from outside the Union, the same consolidation risk the French audit office flagged in July, noting that about 80 percent of the components used by French quantum computer makers come from the European market.

Perrault carried the same message to the European Parliament, at Europe's Quantum Moment: From Lab to Leadership, an event organised by MEP Sergey Lagodinsky with panels on the future Quantum Act, where she summed up the industry's need in two words: speed and money.