EIF IN
SLOVAKIA
Investing in the future of Slovakian SMEs
Small and medium-size enterprises are the heart of the Slovak economy.
Representing 99% of all businesses and more than two thirds of the workforce, Slovakia's 549,000 SMEs are responsible for driving innovation as well as spurring on growth, and their daily routine is what ensures the competitiveness of the Slovak 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 Slovakia, we have been supporting SMEs using a broad range of instruments, including many tailored to the needs of the Slovak market and designed with the Slovak government and local authorities.
As a result, we've been able to support more than 12,500 Slovak businesses, such as a family-run metalworking firm with growth ambitions, 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 Slovak market, making access to finance easier as we collectively move towards a greener, digital and more inclusive Europe.
Success stories
Matsuko
Success stories
Matsuko
Maria Vircikova, an AI expert building emotional models for social robots, and Matus Kirchmayer, a 3D specialist behind Assassin’s Creed, shared a passion for digital communication. Combining their expertise, they created Matsuko, the world's first real-time holographic presence app. Matsuko transforms communication by letting people interact with lifelike holograms, just like in Star Wars.
The pandemic changed how we interact at work, making video meetings the norm – and they’re here to stay. However, there’s still room for improvement. As Maria explains, “There are still issues, like reduced productivity when people feel encaged. What is missing in our digital online meetings is the depth, the third dimension that gives the feeling of being in the same room. That feeling of presence is super important.”
As more European companies adopt hybrid work models, Maria concludes: “We are obliged to find the balance between remote working and productivity. Our goal is to come in with the right tools to make it as seamless and effective as possible.”
Sector ICT
Purpose Energy
Potraviny Bušovce
“My mum always taught me to do work with love and put passion into it – that’s what she did with our first store. We did the same with the second store and it just worked out,” says Tatiana Istocyova, manager of Potraviny Bušovce, a grocery store in the village of Bušovce in Slovakia.
Their commitment to customers and the local community has been a key factor in driving the family’s business growth. Jozef Ištocy, her father, has run a store in Spišská Bela since 1997 and saw a new building in Bušovce, on a main road with connections to other areas, as an ideal spot for expansion.
Jozef wasn’t wrong. When they bought the property and turned it into a new grocery store, including a bakery and a coffee corner, they didn’t expect its impact. For the local community, the store became a convenient shopping option, allowing them to pick up basic goods from the corner, including fruit and vegetables, fresh pastries, even some toys for kids - a luxury they didn’t have in the past.
Sector Food & Beverage
Purpose Purchasing stock
EkoPellets
EkoPellets produce a more ecological and cheaper substitute for fossil fuels for heating and power production. “Gas relies on expanding infrastructure and that is costly, so the market for pellets and briquettes is growing rapidly, including also in Poland as they move away from coal,” explains Martin Geško, CEO of EkoPellets Slovakia.
An economist by trade, Martin previously worked as a tax consultant in Bratislava. In 2006, he returned to the Zilina region to join a company producing wooden briquettes and pellets. In 2014, he took over the company and started a new business from scratch.
With financial support, Martin invested in machinery and has been working to put the company on a more secure footing. “I really want to grow the company organically, keep production effective as it is, grow sales, and keep good people here, making it stronger, better, more secure, and a little bit bigger.”
Sector ICT
Purpose Commercialisation
EDO-KIN Group: enjoying Asia
“I used to be a tennis player and travelled a lot for tournaments. That’s when we saw how Americans went about running a business in the food industry and we thought we could do something similar back home in Slovakia,” says Michal Sramko, co-founder of EDI-KIN Group, a company that runs a sushi business.
“We wanted to combine high quality with fair price and at the same time adapt Asian food to local tastes – not focussing too much on the traditional approach, but rather combining it a bit with Slovak gastro-preferences,” he adds. Today, the company runs eight restaurants across the country, as well as a delivery service and a lunchbox offer. The business has its own factory where it produces its sushi boxes, and the restaurants are doing very well. “We’re number one in Slovakia,” smiles Michal.
Sector Food & Beverage
Purpose Working capital
Key figures
Figures as of December 2024
Over
of EIF financing
Transactions with financial intermediaries
Equity investments since inception
Guarantees support since inception
made available for
Slovakian businesses
Mandates in focus
The EIF continues to deploy capital in Slovakia under a wide range of strategic programmes and mandates. Below are brief summaries of our main initiatives in Slovakia.
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 2024, RCR accounted for about 24% of our equity activity, committing €1.7bn 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.
EGF
The European Guarantee Fund was created by the EIB Group with contributions from Slovakia and other Member States to protect companies struggling in the crisis caused by COVID-19. With almost €25bn in guarantees, the EGF allowed the EIB and EIF to swiftly offer companies, mostly SMEs and mid-caps, access to loans, guarantees, asset-backed securities, capital and other financial instruments. The EGF forms part of the package of recovery measures put in place by the EU, with the objective of providing a total of €540bn to support the hardest hit sectors of the European economy.
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.
CEEFoF
The Central Europe Fund of Funds (CEFoF) is a €97m fund-of-funds initiative created in close co-operation with the governments and national agencies of Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia to boost equity investments into SMEs and small mid-caps across the region, establishing a sound market-based risk financing infrastructure, implementing the best market standards for equity investments in businesses and attracting institutional investors and investment managers to Central Europe.
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