EIF and European Commission are launching a new Pan-European Venture Capital Fund(s)-of-Funds programme. The programme aims to further address Europe’s equity gap, the fragmentation of the VC market and to attract additional private funding from institutional investors into the EU venture capital asset class.

Under the Programme, EIF will provide a maximum of 25% of the total commitments of a Fund-of-Funds. The Fund-of-Funds will then in turn invest in investee funds on the basis of their investment strategy. The maximum size of each investment in a selected Fund-of-Funds is limited to EUR 300 million. The Programme is sponsored by the European Union (EU) and forms part of the Investment Plan for Europe, the Capital Markets Union Action Plan, Digital Single Market strategy, the Single Market Strategy and Open Innovation strand of Horizon 2020.

EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas said: “There's far less venture capital in Europe than in the US, and funds don't have the scale or geographic scope to grow companies from early stage to mid-cap and from mid-cap to global players. The Pan-European VC Fund-of-Funds initiative tackles this problem head-on. It will lead to higher levels of investment in new generations of highly innovative European firms.”

EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert, commented: “I am pleased to be launching the new Pan-European VC Fund-of-Funds programme for the benefit of SMEs. This supports our efforts to bridge Europe’s equity gap and attract additional private funding from institutional investors into the venture capital market”.

EIF launched a Call for Expression of Interest for this programme today, targeting Fund-of-Funds which provide finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe. Once applications are received, after a thorough due diligence process, the EIF will select financial intermediaries which will then make the new finance available to European SMEs across a range of sectors.

About EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment. Read more about EIF's work under EFSI.

About the Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The Investment Plan is already showing results. The European Investment Bank (EIB) estimates that the projects and agreements approved for financing under the EFSI so far (by 26 September 2016) are expected to mobilise EUR 127.2 billion in total investments across 27 Member States and to support almost 290,000 SMEs. Building on this success, the European Commission on 14 September 2016 proposed extending the EFSI by increasing its firepower and duration as well as reinforcing its strengths. Find the latest EFSI figures including a break-down by sector and by country here. For more information see the FAQs.

About InnovFin equity

InnovFin Equity provides risk capital financing to funds that provide equity and quasi equity investments in SMEs in their in their pre-seed, seed, start-up and other early stage phases allowing them to set up or reach their next development stage. The InnovFin Equity investment focus is on innovative sectors of Horizon 2020 such as ICT, life sciences, clean energy and on societal challenges such as resource efficiency, bio economy, health and demographics, climate change.

About the COSME Equity Facility for Growth (EFG)

The Equity Facility for Growth (EFG) is dedicated to investments in risk-capital funds that provide venture capital and mezzanine finance to expansion and growth-stage SMEs, in particular those operating across borders. It is expected that some 500 firms will receive equity financing through the programme, with overall investment reaching up to EUR4 billion. The EFG is part of COSME, the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) running from 2014 to 2020. It has a total budget of EUR 2.3 billion and at least 60% of the programme will be devoted to improving access to finance for SMEs in Europe. Businesses can contact selected financial institutions in their country to access EU financing: www.access2finance.eu

Press contacts:

EIF: David Yormesor, Tel.: + 352 24 85 81 346, E-Mail: d.yormesor@eif.org

European Commission: Lucia Caudet, Tel.:+ 32 2 29 60539, E-Mail: lucia.caudet@ec.europa.eu

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