The SME Instrument – a jump to private investment

The SME Instrument has proven to be one of, if not the most, successful EU funds for Research, Development and Innovation.

While private investors recognize the high capacity of innovations and SMEs who have been selected by the fund since its first years of existence, this tendency has been notably growing. EASME, the European Executive Agency for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, has calculated that for each € 1 granted by the SME Instrument the SMEs would get € 4,8 of private investment by 2022. EASME also reports that from 2014 to 2017, companies funded by the SME Instrument have attracted €1.35 billion private follow-on funding. A vast majority – €0.97 billion – came from equity investments and the remaining amount from debt funding, IPOs and acquisitions.

In addition to all this, the SME Instrument has two distinct features that make its beneficiaries even more successful: (1) it intervenes at a very early stage of the product (and often company) development and (2) it is being adapted to the changing requirements of the market and the economy (i.e. the template was changed in January 2018 and business coaching services were added to all phases).

Since its beginning in 2014 until today nearly 4 000 projects have been selected for funding, which translates to €1 650 million committed resources (part of it still to be administered, as the projects progress). You can be one of them! Contact the NCP Brussels team and based on your needs company profile and technology we would advise you on your chances of winning. We would employ all our experts in order to make your application a winning one.