Stories
Discover the impact of financial instruments and how they meet the financing needs of businesses around Europe.
A berry successful business venture
Thanks to the financial backing of the Micro and small loans for rural development 2014-2020, Ivica Babojelić, a young farmer growing organic berries in Samobor, West of Zagreb, could kickstart his project and transform his mother’s plot of land into a flourishing family farm.
Since its launch in 2018, the financial instrument, set up with EUR 77.1 million from EAFRD and EUR 13.6 million of national contribution, has already helped more than 2 000 small farmers in Croatia to modernise their equipment and advance their business.
A leap towards sustainability
Thanks to the venture capital (VC) support from IBB Ventures, backed by European Regional Development Fund resources, Nuventura, a Berlin-based start-up is spearheading a green revolution.
The company develops switchgear – key hardware components omnipresent in electrical grids – which substitute sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), the world’s strongest greenhouse gas, with dry air. Fuelling Nuventura’s momentum, governments worldwide, including the European Union, have set ambitious targets to phase out the use of SF6 in switchgear as soon as 2030.
A helping hand to a passionate entrepreneur
Thanks to the project ‘Entrepreneurial Training Programme for migrants’, funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) under the Partnerships and Financing for Migrant Inclusion (PAFMI) action, and implemented by Qredits, a Dutch microfinance institution (MFI), Jeffrey Msamala, a 34-year-old man originally from Zimbabwe, could build a valuable network and move forward his water sanitation company in the Netherlands.
New education scheme is a triumph
An EU-funded scheme, in the field of human capital, is implemented by the Malta Development Bank (MDB) and backed by the European Social Fund (ESF and ESF+). The blended financial instrument combines a guaranteed loan with a grant in the form of interest rate subsidy. Over the past four years, this instrument has allowed more than 500 students finance their studies.
