The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and venture capital firm Expon Capital have signed an agreement that aims to foster the development of the AI sector through accelerating investment.
Luxembourg is fertile ground for start-ups, and with Artificial Intelligence growing fast, there is also an appetite for funding. That already exists in the face of support from the government, the EU, and national funding agencies such as the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR). With this in mind, LIST and Expon Capital will be looking to simplify financing and boost research and development. Their collaboration aims specifically to foster public and private co-investment.
The cornerstone of the agreement is LIST’s involvement, from an early stage, in the process of identifying promising companies. The two will then develop a strategy aimed at developing partnerships between digital companies and the investment and financial community. This should lead to participation in R&D and innovation projects.
“The strength of Luxembourg, which we are implementing with this agreement, is its ability to rapidly ‘package’ an attractive collaboration offer for companies judged to be promising, by involving public funding agencies, venture capital players represented by Expon Capital and operational R&D and innovation players such as LIST.”
Francesco Ferrero, Director of LIST’s IT for Innovative Services department.
Backed by the ministry of higher education and research, LIST’s main activity is to develop market-oriented prototypes of products and services for public and private players. Expon, on the other hand, has made a name for itself by funding early-stage startups. Their collaboration seems evident in the context of a growing interest in AI, whose developers will now also have to tick a few more boxes with the EU passing its first AI legislation.
