“The EU is part of the problem. Thus far it has mostly brought us silly cookie[s] and AI warnings,” Jitse Groen, CEO of Dutch food-delivery platform Just Eat Takeaway, said Thursday.

Groen refers to the EU’s heavy regulatory push in several technology areas, such as data protection and artificial intelligence.

“The EU could move to the bottom of the global innovation pile,” Niklas Östberg, CEO of German food-delivery platform Delivery Hero, warned if the bloc didn’t tackle issues like regulatory barriers and the funding gap.

Glad to see Draghi’s report calling out the regulatory barriers and lack of investment stifling the European scaleups’ growth story. While we are proud to be listed in Europe, the EU could move to the bottom of the global innovation pile if the new European Commission doesn’t… https://t.co/x4Bicm8TB9

— Niklas Oestberg (@niklasoestberg) September 12, 2024

The Commission does not intend to become a run-of-the-mill investor that funds ordinary software applications or other consumer-focused technologies.

The focus is “deep tech,” a catch-all term for research-heavy — and, as such, capital-intensive — technologies such as quantum computing, microchips and cybersecurity.

That could raise the bar for investors to join the EU’s initiative.

Tech venture capitalists generally seek a successful — profitable — exit after a couple of years, while these more advanced technologies can take much longer to commercialize and produce results.