InnovFin financing tools cover a wide range of loans, guarantees and equity-type funding, which can be tailored to innovators’ needs. Financing is either provided directly or via a financial intermediary, most usually a bank or a fund.

InnovFin is available across all eligible sectors in EU Member States and Associated Countries, under the EU Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020.

To read more about which InnovFin products are available and who can benefit from them, please click here.

"InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators" is a joint initiative launched by the European Investment Bank Group (EIB and EIF) in cooperation with the European Commission under Horizon 2020.

InnovFin aims to facilitate and accelerate access to finance for innovative businesses and other innovative entities in Europe.

One of the key factors constraining the implementation of R&I activities is the lack of available financing at acceptable terms to innovative businesses since these types of companies or projects deal with complex products and technologies, unproven markets and intangible assets.

In order to overcome these difficulties, the EU and the EIB Group have joined forces to provide finance for research and innovation to entities that may otherwise struggle to access financing.

The EU lags behind its global competitors in terms of both private and public investment in research and innovation.

However, innovation is a key ingredient for driving sustainable growth, creating jobs and ensuring Europe’s long-term competitiveness. That is why the EIB Group and the European Commission have made it a top priority to facilitate access to finance for innovative businesses in Europe.

InnovFin builds on the success of the former Risk-Sharing Finance Facility developed in the early 2000’s under the EU framework programme for research and technological development (FP7).

Under the 2014-2020 programming period, the European Union and EIB Group have more than doubled their combined support for innovative firms in Europe. In addition to more financing being made available, InnovFin also offers a greater product range.

InnovFin has been developed in such a way to provide a series of integrated and complementary financing tools.

The InnovFin products are subject to regular updates to reflect market evolution. Since its launch in 2014, a dozen products have been tailored and made available to accommodate niche markets previously suffering from access to finance gaps and to reinforce the complementarity with the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).