Entrepreneurs supported through the High Growth and
Innovative SME facility (GIF) under CIP

There are hundreds of people across the European Union with excellent business ideas, yet often finance providers are unable to help them carry out their ambitions. The EU Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) has a budget of over €1bn to facilitate access to loans and equity finance for SMEs where market gaps have been identified. The CIP financial instruments cover different needs depending on the stage of development of the SMEs.

The High Growth and Innovative SME facility (GIF) under the CIP Programme provides risk capital for innovative SMEs in their early stages and expansion phase.

The entrepreneurs here below benefited from the GIF support which allowed private equity and venture capital funds to give them the necessary kick-start to launch their businesses and carry out their ambitions.

Do you want to know more? Click on the pictures to read some stories...

Albuquerque, Portugual Who hasn’t wondered when finding themselves in for a long wait at the end of a queue at their local post office how the service could be improved? The company’s INLINE ® solution, a queue management system, helps solve the problem of endless slow - moving queues...	Capricorn Cleantech Fund, Norway Are residues from cleantech product manufacturing discarded, buried at the bottom of the oceans or recycled for further use? Recycling is the option chosen by Metallkraft. The company converts exhausted slurry from the wafer cutting process used for solar panel production into a re-usable product.

Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund, Sweden Ever wondered why those lights that flash on top of police and emergency vehicles never overheat, blow up or change colour although they are used extensively? Aluwave may have something to do with it. It is an innovative company that designs and supplies intelligent modules and lighting systems based on LED...	360 Capital one, Italy Who would not want to replace lead-acid batteries, diesel gensets and other polluting technologies with an innovative energy source that does not produce emissions and requires fewer raw materials? Electro Power Systems, an Italy-based company is providing a ground-breaking solution: an advanced fuel cell system...

For entrepreneurs: where to access finance
For any information about requirements and conditions, please refer to the the list of our financial intermediaries in your country by visiting : http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/index.htm