Europe Can Create €100M Companies. Can It Create Global Category Leaders?

06th October 2026, Amsterdam, Netherlands - Europe is finally putting serious capital behind scale-ups. TGC Capital Partners says money may no longer be the biggest problem.

Europe has spent years blaming its scale-up gap on capital. Now the capital is arriving. The EU's new Scaleup Europe Fund is targeting €5 billion, specifically to help Europe's most promising technology businesses grow faster and compete globally. Yet the numbers expose an uncomfortable reality. After ten years, European scale-ups still raise around 50% less capital than their US peers. More strikingly, the EU has only around 11% as many companies valued between $500 million and $10 billion as the US. @https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-fund/scaleup-europe-fund_en

So perhaps Europe's real problem is no longer creating companies worth €100 million. It is creating enough companies capable of going far beyond it. A bigger funding round can hide a weak operating model. A higher valuation can disguise poor scalability. And international expansion can look impressive until every new country requires another team, another process and another layer of cost.

That is the fault line TGC Capital Partners believes European SaaS is now approaching. The firm calls the next stage hyperscaling - not growth at any cost, but growth where revenue, distribution and enterprise value can increase faster than headcount, complexity and capital consumption. For TGC, that means changing the conversation from "How much can we raise?" to "How much growth can this organisation actually absorb?" says Niraj Gemawat, Managing Partner, TGC Capital Partners.

"Gateway has had its footprint in Europe for more than two decades. We have seen companies being formed, incubated, pivoted, scaled and transformed from the inside. We know what happens beyond the pitch deck. Strategy matters. Governance matters. Bookkeeping and financial discipline matter. Marketing matters. Technology execution matters. And sometimes founders need genuine handholding - without somebody taking command of their company", affirms Niraj.

That experience is the foundation on which TGC Capital Partners has been built. They are not trying to replace founders or run their businesses for them. They bring capital together with the operating capability of Gateway so founders can retain control while accessing the engineering, go-to-market and governance capacity required for the next stage. Europe does not have a shortage of ambitious founders. The challenge is whether we can build operating systems around them that are capable of turning European scale-ups into enduring global businesses.

TGC's model reflects that philosophy. The firm pairs minority growth capital with embedded engineering, go-to-market and governance teams, while founders retain control. Its operating platform is backed by Gateway Group, which has more than 29 years of operating history, 2,000+ specialists across 15 countries and experience supporting more than 500 founders and businesses. The timing matters. Europe is putting billions behind its scale-up ambitions. But capital by itself will not create global category leaders. The next European SaaS failure may not be failing to raise enough money. It may be raising the money - and discovering the company was never built to absorb it.

About TGC Capital Partners
TGC Capital Partners is an operator-led growth capital firm and the dedicated investment platform of Gateway Group. It combines minority growth capital with embedded engineering, go-to-market and governance capabilities for B2B SaaS and software businesses scaling internationally.

Contact Us
- Gateway Group of Companies
- The Netherlands, Maria Montessorilaan 3, 2719 DB Zoetermeer
- Phone: +31 (0) 79 3200 980
- Email: suparna.dasgupta@thegatewaycorp.com
- https://www.tgccapitalpartners.com/

This release was published on openPR.