March 28 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian government’s financing facility Fund of Funds (FoF) will provide nearly 245 million euro ($263.9 million) in equity financing to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through five venture capital funds, the innovation ministry said on Tuesday.
The initiative will provide MSMEs with the opportunity to apply for funding ranging from 15,000 euro to over 3.5 million euro, depending on their development stage, the ministry said in a press release. Start-ups will receive between 15,000 and 50,000 euros for acceleration, while early-stage companies will be eligible for up to 1 million euro and those in the growth stage will be able to apply for over 3.5 million euro.
The FoF has created five venture capital funds that will provide equity and quasi-equity financing until the end of this year in exchange for stakes in the companies. Innovation Capital and Vitosha Venture Partners will manage accelerator programs for start-ups, New Vision 3 and Morningside Hill will support companies with an already developed product or service, while Silverline Partners will provide mezzanine or hybrid financing for companies in the growth stage.
Equity instruments enable entrepreneurs to develop their innovation by providing fund managers with a small percentage of ownership, FoF representative Konstantina Voynova said. In return, the fund managers from the FoF system provide strategic support, including contacts, mentoring, markets and training.
The initiative is financed under the Competitiveness and Innovation in Enterprises programme, with the EU funds disbursed through a combination of grant funding and instruments for debt and equity financing.
In the past two years, the FoF has backed more than 215 companies with venture funding worth nearly 200 million levs under the operational programme Innovation and Competitiveness 2014-2020, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
($1 = 0.9282 euro)