The European Social Fund (ESF) powered risk-sharing microfinance facility enabled Yanina Taneva, founder of Ideas Factory, to deliver impactful projects in Bulgaria’s poorest regions. The Sofia-based association is driving community-led social changes in places where they are scarce – across generations, in cities and remote villages, and for individuals and municipal authorities.
Building on the success of a financial instrument created for a 2007-2013 pilot, the Polish National Fund for Social Entrepreneurship (NFSE) – set up in the 2014-2020 period with €37 million – is helping to protect hundreds of social economy enterprises all over the country. RAZEM (meaning “together” in Polish), an association that supports 200 children and young people with mental and physical disabilities, was fortunate enough to be able to rely on the fund’s support at a difficult time.
The ESF powered Risk-Sharing Micro-Finance Facility invests in social entrepreneurship to address the needs of vulnerable groups. Promoted by FMFIB, Bulgaria's Fund Manager of Financial Instruments, and implemented by SIS Credit and Mikrofond, this financial instrument has supported the creation of over 1 500 jobs in Bulgaria.
The EU Commission and the EIB have been working towards supporting worker buyouts through advanced talks on the topic as well as a new ESF+ fi-compass study with a special focus on four European countries: France, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. Initiated in cooperation with DG EMPL, the study is set to explore innovative models of financial instruments for preserving jobs and skills in the EU workforce.
Small and young companies have limited access to the capital market. With the help of the Micro Mezzanine Fund Germany, Benjamin Brito, a young Argentinian, who arrived in Germany ten years ago, was able to open and develop his own van renovation business in Hamburg.
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.
Thanks to a microloan backed by SIS Credit under the ESF financial instrument, a group of friends created Infinite Games Ltd, a social enterprise active in the field of human rights education.
Thanks to a EUR 17 895 microfinance loan backed by SIS Credit under the ESF financial instrument, Stelian Radovenski and Lazar Lazarov founded Made Right, a profitable business specialising in the production of quality shirts for men in Pleven, the third largest city in Northern Bulgaria.
