EIF IN
ROMANIA
Investing in the future of Romanian SMEs
Small and medium-size enterprises are the heart of the Romanian economy.
Representing 99% of all businesses and more than two thirds of the workforce, Romania's 525,000 SMEs are responsible for driving innovation as well as spurring on growth, and their daily routine is what ensures the competitiveness of the Romanian economy. But to do that, they often need finance.
At the same time, as the smallest actors in the economy, they are often the hardest hit when the economy encounters turbulence, which is why it is so crucial for them to have financial options in order to maintain and eventually grow their businesses.
At the EIF, our mission is to improve access to finance for small businesses across the EU. In addition to building a sustainable venture capital ecosystem through dedicated financial instruments in Romania, we have been supporting Romanian SMEs using a broad range of instruments, including many tailored to the needs of the Romanian market and designed with the national government and local authorities.
As a result, we've been able to support more than 61,000 Romanian businesses, whether they specialise in digital solutions for bee management, create sweet delicacies for Bucharest locals, or produce industrial-use trailers and containers, making sure they have the financial fuel they need to pursue their ambitions.
Our intention is to continue to extend this type of support to the Romanian market, making access to finance easier as we collectively move towards a greener, digital and more inclusive Europe.
Success stories
Christian Siman
Success stories
Christian Siman
“I think I will work in AI. A lot of this master’s is in AI. It’s a huge, growing field, and I’m really getting into it. Humanity has a lot to profit from AI. Automated processes can go faster than with human input.” Christian Siman grew up in Cluj-Napoca and has studied in Nice, Ljubljana and Stockholm in pursuit of his passion for engineering. Being able to study across Europe has meant increasing his knowledge and broadening his socio-cultural experiences.
Christian completed the first year of his master’s degree on intelligent autonomous systems at Polytech Nice Sophia, and has already embarked on his second year in Stockholm, as part of his EIT Digital Masters School studies. Autonomous systems refer to things like ticketing booths at airports and parking lots that have no human input. “They can range from a small unit to a system that runs an entire factory,” Christian tells us. “It’s about learning how to create fully operational robots.”
Wright Educational Solutions
“Kids spend too much time on their screens. They miss out on interaction with other children, on savouring the outdoors and the endless opportunities for discovery that nature provides. We’re giving them that chance to reconnect with each other and with nature, develop their social skills and enjoy learning through their natural environments,” says Gyongyver Pillich-Wright, founder of Macau-based Wright Educational Solutions and a qualified teacher trainer specialising in neuro-language coaching.
The project offers children aged 6-10 all sorts of (afternoon or weekend) activities involving exploring local villages, forests and farms, adapted to their normal educational programme. “We’re practicing alternative methods to teach subjects such as mathematics, physical education and languages through green schooling. We get the children out in the woods and, soon enough, the connection happens—letters and numbers emerge through games, hut constructions, tree counting. Suddenly, learning becomes exciting.”
Patiseria Casandra
“My mother was managing the ‘production unit’ in the centre of Bucharest until communism collapsed, and in 1991, when privatisation started, she had to make a choice: buy the unit and keep running it or move on. In order to keep it, she had to guarantee the purchase with her house and help from friends and neighbours. It was a big risk at the time, but she pulled through,” explains Octavian Popescu, who runs Patiseria Casandra today.
Octavian, his mother Alexandrina—from whom the patisserie takes its name—and his wife all work together to keep this family business alive, specialising in traditional Romanian pastries. At the same time, however, it is moving forward with the times: “My wife and I became more involved in order to modernise the business, importing chocolate from Belgium, renovating the facilities, developing an online presence, and introducing delivery with UberEats and Glovo. But we don’t want to lose the link with the past. Patiseria Casandra has a strong brand and very loyal customers who have been coming here for generations.”
Alexandra Vîstraş
“When I was in high school, I attended my first few performances at the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, and I guess that opened my appetite to start going to the theatre regularly. I went quite often after that and did a lot of volunteering for film and theatre festivals in the summers. Then I did an Erasmus in Athens at the International Dance Council, working on international relations,” says Alexandra Vîstraş from Sibiu.
Alexandra completed her degree in Theatre Studies & Cultural Management in Romania and then worked as a PR officer for a theatre and an international theatre festival in Sibiu before pursuing a master’s degree at Lund University in Sweden. “It’s very interesting to see how Swedes go about project management in the cultural sector. In a way it’s very similar to Romania – both rely a lot on public and European funding – but at the same time there are some differences.” Looking ahead, Alexandra hopes to continue along her path, “maybe even running my own projects, starting up my own programmes in performing arts.”
Apiary Book
“It's simple mathematics: if bees disappear so will mankind,” says Bogdan Iordache, founder of Apiary Book. Originally a freelancer in IT and software development, Bogdan changed direction in 2014: “I was comfortable in my career, too comfortable really, so I decided to reinvent myself, go on a different journey, do good, be close to nature. I knew of biodiversity depletion, so beekeeping seemed the obvious choice.”
What started as a personal project soon turned into a fully-fledged business when in 2017, Apiary Book was born. A year into beekeeping, Bogdan had designed a smartphone application that analyses the activity of his 20 hives, collecting, monitoring, and reporting data such as bee movements, numbers, behavioural changes, apiary temperature fluctuation via sensors, and pest intrusions.
The application has already been downloaded by over 200 000 beekeepers around the world and is used by 25 000 of them monthly in 19 languages. Nevertheless, for all of his many successes, what Bogdan wants most for the future is “to continue to wake up every morning knowing that I am going to have fun with the bees. It gets me buzzing.”
Pop Industry
Dan Popescu founded Pop Industries in 1994. The company, located in Slatina, specialises in the production of trailers and containers. “We gathered all the right ingredients from the start, but success didn’t come straight away. I had studied at the polytechnic school, and I had never taken a business class. I didn’t know anything about business plans or marketing, so I’ve had to learn it all step by step,” says Dan.
Since then, Pop Industry has gone from strength to strength. “Older containers didn’t last very long. We researched on the qualities and usability of various chemical elements and discovered a process through which metallic and non-metallic elements could extend the life and resistance of materials. Our new, long-lasting containers significantly boosted our sales,” explains Dan. “Today we sell half of our trailers outside Romania. This has given us confidence to further internationalise Pop Industry and trade with North America and South America.”
Key figures
Over
of EIF financing
Transactions with financial intermediaries
Equity investments since inception
Guarantees support since inception
made available for
Romanian businesses
Mandates in focus
The EIF continues to deploy capital in Romania under a wide range of strategic programmes and mandates. Below are brief summaries of our main initiatives in Romania.
InvestEU
The InvestEU programme provides the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It is helping to mobilise private investments for the EU's policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU Programme brings together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments previously available to support investment in the EU, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.
RCR
The EIB’s Risk Capital Resources (RCR) is the core pillar of the EIF’s equity activity. It has enabled us to pursue our equity strategy in the venture capital and growth segments for more than 25 years. In 2023, RCR accounted for 25% of our equity activity, committing €1.4bn to financial intermediaries.
EFSI
The European Fund for Strategic Investments formed part of the EU's Investment Plan for Europe, launched by the European Commission in 2015. EFSI addressed market gaps in financing - whether in infrastructure, research, energy efficiency or risk finance for SMEs – and mobilised private investment into these areas. Through EFSI the EIF deployed €10.5bn in resources of the European Commission, the EIB and the EIF to improve access to finance for SMEs and small midcaps.
Microfinance mandates
Microfinance is very important in the Romanian economy and the EIF has been extending support to this market segment through a number of different mandates, including the EPMF programme (2010-2016), EaSI (2015-2023) and most recently InvestEU – supporting more than 40,000 micro-businesses in the process. These products have been offering portfolio guarantees, liquidity boost and capacity-building support to strengthen the institutional capacity of microfinance providers in the country, ultimately enhancing access to finance for vulnerable micro-entrepreneurs, including women-led enterprises, self-employed entrepreneurs as well as start-ups, with strong impact in the form of financial and social inclusion.
REPowerEU
The EU launched REPowerEU in 2022 to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel imports and accelerate the green transition. To support the plan, in October 2022, the EIB Group developed a package of measures focussing on renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity networks and on deepening its engagement in green innovation and breakthrough technologies. Under REPowerEU, the EIF will invest €4.5bn by 2027 through EIF equity products.
Romania Recovery and Resilience Facility - Equity
Together with the government of Romania, we launched a fund-of-funds to support local businesses with access to equity finance leveraging EU resources. The Romania Recovery Equity Fund of Funds (REF), with an allocation of €400m, will invest into underlying funds which in turn will make financing available in the form of equity and quasi-equity for SMEs and mid-caps, including start-ups, companies in early, advanced growth and expansion stages, and infrastructure projects focused, among others, on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Romania Recovery and Resilience Facility - Debt
In 2023, we launched a new debt mandate, using resources from RRF Romania and tapping into the InvestEU Member State Compartment. Our guarantee enables our Romanian partner banks to offer improved financing terms like lower interest rates, reduced collateral requirements and down-payment requirements as well as longer maturities and increased financing volumes and support for excluded segments such as start-ups. With financing available in both RON and EUR, this endeavour will bolster Cohesion regions and climate action in Romania, fostering business growth and expansion, supporting value chains, sustainable infrastructure products and services, renewable energy and energy efficiency, and clean transport, while strengthening the Romanian financial ecosystem.
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