July 21 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Fund said and ProCredit Group have signed an agreement to provide an additional 450 million euro ($523.8 million) to innovative small and medium-sized firms, bringing a total of 820 million euro to companies in 11 countries in Europe, EIF said.
The EIF-backed financing is now available through ProCredit banks from Germany to Georgia and targets companies using new technologies and producing new products in one of the eleven countries where the facility is available, EIF said in a statement on Thursday.
The countries include Germany, Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia.
To date, agreements with ProCredit have already supported more than 1,000 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and many more will be financed in the coming years.
These agreements were signed under the European Commission’s InnovFin initiative, backed by the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The InnovFin initiative enables participating banks to provide loans to innovative companies with the support of a guarantee provided by the EIF.
The agreements signed in EU member states were made possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The EFSI is the central pillar of the European Commission's Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker Plan.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them access finance.
($=0.859013 euro)