The EU's Scaleup Europe Fund is expected to raise more than its €5bn target.
Per Franzén,chief executive at EQT, the Swedish private equity firm selected to manage the vehicle in May, told the Financial Times last week that interest had been "beyond what we had anticipated."
He said the firm was "very, very comfortable" raising at least €5bn, and possibly more. Franzén declined to give a figure.
The Scaleup Europe Fund is designed to back late-stage European companies in areas such as energy, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, and semiconductors. It targets a long-running weakness in European tech: the shortage of large growth cheques that pushes startups toward US investors.
The European Commission is a founding investor, alongside Novo Holdings, CriteriaCaixa and Santander. Around €2.5bn had been committed by the end of last year.
EQT was selected to run the fund in May, beating UK firm Atomico and France's Eurazeo.
Franzén said EQT saw the strongest opportunities in AI infrastructure, AI applications, life sciences and biotech. He argued Europe had not missed its moment in AI, pointing to companies including Lovable and Parloa.
The optimism lands amid a political fight over who can access the money.
France is pushing to block UK participation in the fund, according to reporting from Sifted, casting doubt over British startups' access. EU officials have since floated a quota system to break the standoff, according to the publication.