Since 1994, the EIF has been the European Union’s financing arm for SMEs and mid-caps. We are part of the EIB Group, and we are an EU body focusing on financial instruments that make financing more accessible and affordable for businesses.
Thanks to the EIF support, they can contribute to innovation, growth, competitiveness, social impact and sustainability across the EU. We are also funding infrastructure investments with a social and sustainability objective.
Shazam, WeTransfer, BlaBlaCar, Spotify, Skyscanner, Vinted... How many of these companies are part of your daily routine?
These companies have been backed by the EIF across their different stages of development, from start-up to scale-up and international growth. And whilst not every company needs to become a unicorn, we are still proud to have many succesful innovators in our large portfolio in co-operation with our large network of intermediaries and partners.
We count the European Commission (EC), the European Investment Bank (EIB), regional and national authorities and private institutional investors amongst our partners, entrusting mandates to the EIF to create and manage impactful financing solutions at every stage.
Our assets under management (AuM) reached more than €140 billion across 214 mandates by end-2024 (since inception, total per annum). The EIF's flagship mandates currently include InvestEU, TechEU, ETCI and other historical EU and EIB financing initiatives for SMEs.
Small businesses are the backbone of Europe’s economy. Yet, access to finance remains a significant challenge for many of them as they often lack the collateral, credit history, or scale to secure traditional bank loans on favourable terms. This is where the EIF comes in.
Apart from SMEs, we also support infrastructure funds that ensure technological innovation and large-scale impact. Like renewable energy generation, data centres, electric vehicle charging stations and housing projects making a difference across the economy.