Swedish investment firm EQT is in talks to lead or co-lead French AI darling Mistral’s Series D via the Scaleup Europe Fund, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the deal.
The European Union launched the €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund at the end of last year to address the region’s lack of late-stage capital. In May, EQT won a lengthy competition to manage the fund, which is set to make its first investments from autumn this year.
The Scaleup Europe Fund plans to lead or co-lead investments and write cheques between €100m and €500m. Sifted understands the talks with Mistral are in line with this thesis.
Mistral is reportedly in talks to raise a €3bn Series D at a valuation of around €20bn. Upon completion, the new round would bring total funding raised by the three-year-old company to €6.5bn, which includes debt and equity. The round is still being finalised, according to sources. Mistral declined to comment.
The Paris-based startup launched in 2023 to provide a European alternative to foundational model providers in the US such as OpenAI, and has since become one of the region’s main hopes of competing in the field.
Mistral last raised equity funding in September, when it secured a €1.7bn Series C at an €11.7bn valuation led by Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML.
There’s been much speculation about which company EQT will choose as the first investment from the fund.
Companies need to be developing strategic technologies. The European Innovation Council — the EU body which developed the fund — defines that as AI, quantum, semiconductor tech, robotics and autonomous systems, energy tech, spacetech, biotech, medtech, advanced materials and agritech.
EQT previously told Sifted it had a pipeline of over 100 startups that fit the mandate.
