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Resources

EIF's venture capital activity is principally backed by resources from its main shareholders, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission.


  • EIB Group resources

Since 2000, when EIB became EIF's main shareholder, the EIB and EIF work in close cooperation under the auspices of the EIB Group. EIF manages funds for EIB under the Risk Capital Mandate (RCM). Capital from the RCM resources comprise the lionshare of EIF's investments. EIF also allocates its own resources for investments in venture capital together with the RCM capital.

For its venture capital activity, the EIF manages both its own resources as well as resources from the EIB. Together, these are referred to as EIB Group resources.

EIB Group resources for venture capital are allocated under different investment mandates.The EIF operates these mandates, which are financed primarily by the EIB, as part of the Amsterdam Special Action Programme and the Innovation 2000 Initiative.
Read more about EIB Group resources.


  • European Commission resources

The European Commission allocates for venture capital investments under the High Growth and Innovative SME Facility (GIF), under 2 programmes, known as GIF 1 and GIF 2. Under the GIF, EIF invests in specialised funds, which provide venture capital for SME financing. The GIF is funded by the European Community under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme 2007-13 (CIP).
Read more about European Commission resources

EIF manages the GIF on behalf of the European Commission. Both of these programmes have more specific eligibility criteria than the EIB Group operations.


  • Resources from non-shareholder sources

EIF also makes venture capital investments using resources which are made available to EIF through mandates from non-shareholder sources, such as:

  • ERP-EIF Dachfonds, which EIF manages on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the European Recovery Programme (ERP);
  • LfA-EIF Facility, a joint EIF and Lfa Förderbank Bayern venture providing investments to support technology-oriented early and expansion stage companies in the region of Bavaria, Germany.
  • NEOTEC, a joint venture between EIF and a Spanish government entity;
  • Dahlia, a pan-European fund of funds with a French private equity fund.

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