BRUSSELS - The European Commission kicked off an initiative on Thursday to help 100 unicorns scale up to become Europe's deep tech champions and help drive the bloc's green and digital objectives.

Unicorns are startups valued at $1 billion or more while deep tech startups focus on significant scientific or engineering developments.

The EIC Scale Up 100 initiative will identify and support the growth of 100 promising European deep tech companies with the potential to become unicorns, the EU executive said in a statement.

Startups will be picked in areas that contribute to Europe's green and digital transition such as sustainability (climate and energy), digital and health.

The selected startups will also get a helping hand from a group called the EIC Scaling Club which includes 100 investors including venture capital, growth and government funds, 100 companies with innovation units and 100 independent mentors.

The initiative aims to help the startups grow annually by 40% in their valuation, new investments, partnerships and jobs and by 50% across the same parameters for the 20 top performing companies in two years.

  - Reuters