EIB Group and CaixaBank provide €250 million under the Juncker Plan to finance projects led by female entrepreneurs

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and CaixaBank have signed a new agreement to support the projects of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the process of going global. The new €250 million credit line will have a particular focus on providing financing for projects led by female entrepreneurs wishing to develop innovative projects.

This agreement has enabled the European Investment Fund (EIF) – the EIB Group subsidiary specialising in support for micro-enterprises and SMEs – to grant a €125 million guarantee to CaixaBank, which it will supplement with an additional €125m of its own resources. The contract was signed under the InnovFin SME Guarantee, a programme launched in 2014 by the European Commission enabling the EIF to grant guarantees and counter-guarantees in order to increase the financing available for businesses to promote RDI. The agreement was made possible by the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the central pillar of the Juncker Plan helping the EIB Group to finance a greater number of riskier projects.

With EIF support, CaixaBank will provide female entrepreneurs with a credit line available until September 2019, making it possible to grant financing for developing their investments on favourable conditions in terms of both maturity and interest rates. Financing volumes for this credit line will range from a minimum of €25,000 to a maximum of €7.5 million.

This is the second agreement between the EIF and CaixaBank, which was among the first intermediaries to take part in the EIF-guaranteed SME Initiative. Since its launch in 2015, this initiative has facilitated the provision of more than €4 billion to Spanish SMEs, financing over 48,800 projects. In concrete terms, CaixaBank has contributed to this initiative with a €828 million portfolio, benefiting more than 21,000 SMEs.

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Did you know?

Female creativity and entrepreneurial potential are an under-exploited source of economic growth and jobs. When establishing and running a business, women face more difficulties than men, mainly in access to finance, training, networking, and reconciling business and family. The EU granted funding to a project tackling this problem – WE GROW. 

More information about this project for EU Funding Opportunities for Women here

NCP Brussels Advisor for this Area is: Elena Matvejeva