Progress report for
Developing a Bluelnvest platform
Achievement at a glance
BlueInvest was launched in 2019. It is an initiative that supports innovation and investment in the blue economy sector. It builds a broader ecosystem including financial and innovation networks, markets development, and capacity building.The program supports blue economy start-ups through coaching, fundraising, and matchmaking with investors. It also provides a pipeline of investment opportunities, organises events, and publishes analyses of the investment landscape. Both companies and investors benefit from a network of nearly 200 sectoral experts.
BlueInvest also supports the development of the blue economy investment ecosystem on a broader scale. It includes capacity building for investors and a dedicated financial instrument under InvestEU that provides anchor investments to selected financial intermediaries.
Key outputs and results of the initiative include:
- A curated project pipeline of over 560 investable blue economy products and technologies
- An online community of nearly 1800 members, including 300 investors
- Over 4300 matchmaking meetings facilitated
- Around 65 thematic events organised
- Customised coaching provided to 319 companies
- Over 60 investment deals reported, worth more than EUR 300 million
- Successful roll-out of the pilot BlueInvest Fund and the 'InvestEU Blue Economy' funding facility, raising over EUR 1 billion in public and private funds.
The current phase of BlueInvest started in May 2024, and the program has made significant contributions to addressing the investment gap in the blue economy and facilitating the commercialisation and scale-up of sustainable technologies.
Next Steps
Benedicte CaremierBeneficiaries
- Blue Economy projects (SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups)
- Investors
- Innovation stakeholders
Actions
- Company coaching to enhance investment readiness and support fundraising.- So far 60 investment deals have been facilitated through the BlueInvest platform.
- Example of company success stories are regularly published on the BlueInvest news section on the EU Server.