Europe’s new platform to help unlock funding for bio-based projects

In Belgium, the European Commission reported that a new Bioeconomy Investment Group is being set up to help Europe’s sustainable industries secure the funding they need to grow. The group aims to reduce financial risks for investors, create clear funding standards, and bring together public and private money.

Despite already supporting 17 million jobs, many innovative bio-based projects struggle to secure financing at critical stages, such as moving from small-scale testing to full industrial production. This funding gap risks holding back Europe’s ability to turn scientific breakthroughs in biotechnology and sustainable materials into real-world industries, the commission said.

To fix this, the European Commission and the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) have brought together European banks, national promotional institutions, venture capital funds and institutional investors to create the Bioeconomy Investment Deployment Group (BIDG).  

The work will be on blended-finance architectures, risk-sharing facilities and guarantee instruments tailored to long-duration bio-based projects. It will feed directly into the design of future EU financing frameworks, including instruments under the European Competitiveness Fund, Scale Up Fund and other EU funding instruments, the European body said.

The Deployment Group will develop a common understanding of project bankability aspects, shared due diligence standards, and governance for a database of investment-ready projects. The objective is to shorten origination cycles and enable the formation of financing consortia for large-ticket first-of-a-kind deployments.