Jean-David Malo - European Innovation Council

Director - European Innvovation Agency

Let’s make unicorns together 
Although Europe succeeds in brilliantly maintaining its research performance, it is lagging behind its main competitors in innovation. Already before the outbreak of the pandemic, Europe was facing persistent market gaps and suboptimal investment situations. EU investments in venture capital are four to five times lower than in the US and Europe underperforms in terms of new “unicorn” companies worth over 1 billion euro. To address this challenge, EU has created its own ‘unicorn factory’: the European Innovation Council (EIC) which is both the symbol and the catalyst of the change that is taking place. It has been designed to overcome the key obstacles, which are holding back Europe’s innovation potential.