Incoming EIF Chief Says Tech Champions Funds Hold 15 Unicorns

Jean-Christophe Laloux, the incoming chief executive of the European Investment Fund (EIF), said that funds in the Tech Champions program hold 15 unicorns in their portfolios, meaning private companies valued at $1 billion or more. He spoke on Friday, 9 October 2026, at the Wave by Vento conference in Turin. His main point: European startups need capital to grow without leaving the continent.

As TNW reports it, the key quote reads: "It is not enough to innovate in Europe. You also need to be able to scale in Europe. And that really matters." He then turned to sovereignty: Europe wants companies built on its research and talent to remain European at the stage of large funding rounds, too.

Where the scaling problem comes from

European founders get their first checks without much difficulty. The bottleneck appears later, when a company needs hundreds of millions to enter new markets, hire and make acquisitions. That is the stage at which startups often move to the US or take money from American funds, and headquarters, tax base and control over decisions go with it. The late-stage funding gap in Europe has been discussed for a long time, and Laloux tied the EIF's mission directly to it.

The EIF is part of the European Investment Bank group and operates as a fund of funds. It does not invest in companies directly. Instead, it backs venture funds that source the deals themselves. That is why 15 unicorns in Tech Champions portfolios show how the mechanism has worked in practice: capital reached companies that grew to billion-dollar valuations.

What the number 15 includes, and what it leaves out

The figure needs to be read with care. A unicorn status reflects the valuation of the last funding round, not realized profit. The available part of the material contains no breakdown by company, sector or country, no data on the size of the investments, and no information on how many of the 15 companies work in AI. That information would determine how accurately the figure describes the market.

Key details from the talk:

• Speaker: Jean-Christophe Laloux, incoming chief executive of the EIF.
• Venue: Wave by Vento, Turin, Friday, 9 October 2026.
• Figure: 15 unicorns in Tech Champions fund portfolios.
• Stated goal: innovation and scaling should both happen in Europe.
• Mechanism: investment through venture funds, not direct EIF investments.

Why this matters for AI

For AI companies, the scaling question is sharper than for most software startups. Training and running models depends on compute: GPUs, data centers, energy. In the early stages, these costs grow faster than revenue, so access to large late-stage rounds determines whether a developer of models or agent platforms stays European or sells control to a foreign investor and cloud provider. Laloux's argument hits exactly this point, although the available part of the report does not mention AI directly.

What founders and investors should do

Founders should find out early which venture funds receive money from the EIF and from programs like Tech Champions. Such funds are more often built for large late-stage rounds and may offer an alternative to raising money across the Atlantic. Investors and analysts should wait for an official breakdown of the portfolio: how many of the 15 unicorns are linked to AI and compute infrastructure, where they are incorporated, and what share of their latest rounds came from European funds. For now, this is only a statement by the incoming head, not a report. Even so, it already shows that under his leadership the EIF will measure success by the number of companies that grew to scale inside Europe.