The European Commission has chosen Swedish investment firm EQT to manage its new €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund after a closely-watched race among the region’s top firms like the UK’s Atomico and France’s Eurazeo. The fund is set to invest in European deeptech startups working on technologies like quantum computing and AI. EQT partners Ted Persson and Victor Englesson are the proposed co-heads of the fund's advisory team, with EQT's Christian Sinding proposed to chair the investment committee, EQT said in a press release.Around €2.5bn of the fund had been committed as of the end of last year, €1bn of which is coming from the European Innovation Council (EIC) and another €1.5bn from private LPs like Novo Holdings, CriteriaCaixa, Santander/Mouro Capital, APG Asset Management and Sweden’s Wallenberg family.The competition to manage the fund had previously been whittled down to EQT and London-based firm Atomico. The long list included Eurazeo and Vitruvian. Bloomberg was first to report that EQT had won the mandate.Applicants were required to have managed at least €500m in assets and to have launched at least two funds, among other qualifications."Europe needs this kind of long-term commitment to its growth and we welcome it. We congratulate EQT on being selected as custodian," Atomico CEO Niklas Zennström said in a statement. "We will continue to play an active role in addressing that through our funds, our platform and by continuing to work alongside policymakers to make Europe the best place in the world to build."