EIF backs new fund to ease financing for growth companies in Finland

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is committing €20 million to SP Growth Fund Ky, a new Finnish private credit fund that will provide growth financing to domestic small and medium-sized businesses with strong commercial potential.

SP Growth Fund will help Finnish companies access growth capital that has become scarcer in the country, notably as a result of stricter banking regulation. It will focus on technology-driven businesses that have limited tangible assets and that seek loans ranging in size from €500,000 to €2 million.

The EIF's commitment helped SP Growth Fund reach its first closing of €34 million – more than two-thirds the way towards a target size of €50 million. The other initial backers include Finnish institutional and private investors.

“By backing SP Growth Fund, we are helping develop Finland's private credit market and giving ambitious businesses access to the capital they need to invest, innovate and compete."

The EIF pledge is supported by InvestEU, the European Union's flagship investment programme. It will diversify financing available to Finnish businesses beyond traditional bank lending while strengthening innovation, competitiveness and capital markets in Europe.

SP Growth Fund is managed by SP Growth Partners Oy, an independent Finnish investment manager specialising in financing growth companies. The fund will invest exclusively in Finnish businesses, including small mid-caps.

"Many Finnish growth companies have healthy businesses and strong ambitions, yet securing financing has become increasingly difficult,” said SP Growth Partners Co-Founder Matias Itkonen. “Our goal is to provide flexible financing that allows these companies to invest, expand and create jobs. We are delighted to have the EIF as our anchor investor and to welcome a broad group of Finnish institutional and private investors to the fund."

EIB Group

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees, securitisation and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.

In 2023, the EIF together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund-of-funds to scale up innovative startups. To date, this initiative has already enabled the creation of 15 European venture capital mega-funds and scaled up 45 companies, including 12 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital).

Photos of the EIB Group's representatives and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here. 

SP Growth Partners Oy

SP Growth Partners is a new private credit investor focused on Finnish SMEs with offices in Oulu and Helsinki. SP Growth supports the growth of entrepreneurial and private equity backed businesses while promoting high impact and responsible investments

InvestEU 

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible.

The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.