European Commission Launches New Investor Report to Boost Investment in Sustainable Blue Economy – The European Commission has launched a new investor report during BlueInvest Day 2023 to provide investors with an overview of investment opportunities in the EU blue economy. The report highlights key innovative technologies and investment-ready companies across 10 sectors of the sustainable blue economy from the BlueInvest pipeline. The report is part of an investor capacity-building programme that aims to guide investors in understanding sector opportunities and setting up their financial product and investment strategy.
Its objective is to further mobilize private capital for clean tech in the blue economy to fight climate change and support the EU Green Deal objectives.
According to the report, the ocean economy is expected to grow over the next decade, and 76 out of 87 surveyed investors plan to invest an average of €124.5 million in the blue economy by 2030. Apart from economic return, innovation, impact, and sustainability are the main drivers for investment. However, barriers remain, and there is still a financing gap for start-ups and SMEs in the blue economy. These barriers include high risk perceptions, a lack of investment-grade projects at scale, and a lack of awareness and technical knowledge of the emerging blue economy sectors and concrete investment opportunities.
The report offers a clear analysis of investment opportunities, dedicated financial products, and investment strategies. It highlights specific investment opportunities and key innovations and technologies in 10 sectors. The report also showcases examples of companies from the BlueInvest pipeline, the BlueInvest service featuring innovative projects and entrepreneurs shaping the blue economy. In the coming months, the report will include a deeper market analysis for each sector.
Investments in clean tech doubled in value between 2020 and 2021 alone, and the report suggests that new clean tech products and services across the blue economy sectors will become even more appealing to investors. Blue renewable energy, water management, and blue biotechnology stand out as associated with highly attractive investment opportunities.
BlueInvest Day is the main blue economy matchmaking event in the EU, bringing together innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors. The EU blue economy encompasses all economic activities related to the oceans, seas, and coasts. In 2019, the EU blue economy employed close to 4.5 million people and generated €184 billion in gross value added, with €667 billion in turnover. The EU drives investment flows through enabling policies and initiatives and allocating public funding to foster green and blue innovation. BlueInvest is an EU initiative that supports sustainable and innovative technologies and solutions for the blue economy, providing investment and market readiness assistance to innovative SMEs and start-ups, promoting them to its growing investor community, and helping them to raise finance. BlueInvest also builds investor capacity and helps investors to expand their portfolio into the blue economy. It is boosting the finance ecosystem needed to nurture and scale up blue champions, offering the support they need to be successful and to grow in the European Union and beyond.
European Commission Launches New Investor Report to Boost Investment in Sustainable Blue Economy
