Qredits gets European boost for post-COVID support: €70m for Dutch companies

• European Investment Fund (EIF) backs a portfolio of up to €70 million in new lending by Qredits, guaranteed under the European Guarantee Fund.
• Financing intended to support over 3.500 Dutch micro-companies dealing with the economic consequences of the COVID-pandemic.
• The EGF is part of the €540 billion EU rescue package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dutch microcredit provider Qredits has signed a guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) in the framework of the pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), set up by EU Member States and the EIB Group to help European companies with the necessary funding to find their way out of the crisis caused by the COVID-pandemic.

Providing a 70% guarantee, backed in turn by the EU member states’ guarantee fund, the EIF supports Qredits in making available up to €70 million in new lending to small and micro-companies in the Netherlands. Thanks to the backing of the EGF, Qredits will be able to continue serving the riskiest segments of micro-enterprises from a credit risk point of view and pursue its social mission. Thus, this agreement ensures that companies have the necessary financing to mitigate the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, and are able to continue their growth and development in the medium to long-term.

Elwin Groenevelt, CEO of Qredits Microfinanciering Nederland, stated: “Qredits is extremely pleased that EU Member States and the EIB Group have created this new European Guarantee Fund. This EGF guarantee enables us to finance thousands of entrepreneurs in the Netherlands who would otherwise not get financing.”

“Qredits is a longstanding partner of the EIB Group in the Netherlands”, says Roger Havenith, Deputy Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund. “This pan-European Guarantee Fund is already channelling a lot of much-needed funding to SMEs around the continent and we’re glad that, through Qredits, we can now make sure that Dutch companies will also benefit from this European financing opportunity.”

“The EIB Group is very happy with Qredits as a beneficiary of this first EGF-backed operation in the Netherlands”, added EIB Group Vice-President Kris Peeters. “Micro-companies have come under a lot of stress during the pandemic and the European Guarantee Fund is meant specifically to support them on their way out of these tough times, and we hope to see more Dutch operations to support small companies very soon.”

With an estimated average loan size of around €20.000, Qredits expects to be able to support up to 3.500 Dutch companies, ranging from micro-businesses to SMEs.

Background information:

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.

Qredits is a non-profit organization with 110 employees and ca. 700 volunteers and aims at helping starting entrepreneurs and expanding small SMEs by providing loans, training and coaching services. The organization is supported by the Dutch State through equity-like funding and various guarantees. In addition the EIF has been supporting Qredits since 2011 through various guarantees and other products. 

The European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was set up by the EIB Group with contributions from The Netherlands and other EU Member States to shield companies suffering from the COVID-19 crisis. Using nearly €25 billion in guarantees, the EGF allows the EIB and the EIF to quickly make loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, equity and other financial instruments available to mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. The EGF is part of the European Union’s recovery package aiming to provide a total of €540 billion to boost those parts of the EU economy that have been hit the worst.

Press Contacts:

EIB Group:
Tim Smit, Tel: +352 691 28 64 23, t.smit@eib.org, Follow us on Twitter
Website: www.eif.org - Press Office: +352 4379 21000 – press@eib.org

Qredits:
Ester Renssen, Tel +31 6 48 42 51 44, e.renssen@qredtis.nl