The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Inveready Venture Finance have signed a guarantee agreement which will allow the Spanish fund to provide €6.6m in loans to innovative SMEs and small midcaps in Spain over the next two years, with more expected in the coming months.

The agreement is benefitting from the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) – the heart of the Investment Plan for Europe – and comes under Horizon 2020’s ‘InnovFin – EU Finance for Investors’, a joint initiative launched by the European Investment Bank Group in co-operation with the European Commission that aims to facilitate and accelerate access to finance for innovative businesses and other innovative entities in Europe.

“The agreement between the EIF and Inveready announced today is a good example of the type of risk financing the EFSI was created for,” said Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen. “The Inveready fund finances SMEs at an early stage in their development, which means they are not always eligible for bank loans, so the EFSI is helping to play a crucial role in SME financing.”

Inveready Venture Finance CEO Carlos Conti added: “We are delighted to count with the support of the EIF in this initiative. Venture Debt, which is common in mature technology markets, is a new instrument in Spain and with the support of the EIF’s InnovFin programme we will be able to access a larger pool of companies more focused on intensive R&D and offer them improved market rates”.

The deal marks the first InnovFin transaction in Spain signed thanks to EFSI support.

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