Launch of a new EUR 50m Fund of Funds facility in Bavaria

The facility will enable EIF to commit additional resources to venture capital funds strongly linked to Bavaria and provide equity finance to young and innovative small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the region.

The investment period will cover up to 5 years and divestments will span over a period of 10 years. 

LfA-EIF will target the following market segments:

• Seed and early stage funds with a strong technology transfer emphasis, i.e. funds with a strong access to and cooperation with major public and private research centres;
• Funds that target follow-on financings of tech companies in their early, development and mid-stages, i.e. investments are typically undertaken in second and subsequent financing rounds. 

The Facility is consistent with EIF's mission of supporting the EU objectives for innovation, entrepreneurship, growth and job creation.

EIF already manages a portfolio of over EUR 3.5bn in some 300 funds in the enlarged Europe and is a key player in the technological venture capital scene. Moreover, this new facility capitalises on EIF's strong knowledge of the German market acquired for instance through managing the ERP-EIF Dachfonds. 

Matthias Ummenhofer, Deputy Head Equity Fund investments commented: "We are happy to join forces with the Bavarian Ministry of Economics and LfA. Our cooperation will help to further develop the Bavarian venture capital sector, which, because of its connections to other European regions, plays an important role in the development of the German and European venture capital ecosystem. This facility comes at the right time as it will help to mitigate the effects of the current economic crisis and provides excellent opportunities to invest in young innovative companies".