EIF IN
SPAIN
Investing in the future of Spanish SMEs
Small and medium-size enterprises are the heart of the Spanish economy.
Representing 99% of all businesses and more than two thirds of the workforce, Spain's 2,946,000 SMEs are responsible for driving innovation as well as spurring on growth, and their daily routine is what ensures the competitiveness of the Spanish 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 Spain, we have been supporting SMEs using a broad range of instruments, including many tailored to the needs of the Spanish market and designed with the Spanish government and local authorities.
As a result, we've been able to support close to 384,000 Spanish businesses, ranging from companies developing sustainable dyes, cooling solutions for data centres, and socially inclusive customised children's books, 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 Spanish market, making access to finance easier as we collectively move towards a greener, digital and more inclusive Europe.
Success stories
Moda Re-
Success stories
Moda Re-
Albert Alberich Llaveria started as a volunteer. Today, he’s the Director of Moda re-, a cooperative that operates like a social business, specialising in textile recycling in Spain, with an emphasis on labour integration.
“We collect used clothing from containers, go through them and classify them. Re-usable ones (about half) go to the treatment plants and are then partly sold in our shops and partly exported to Africa. The rest gets recycled through a process that includes the latest technology, like infrared sensors to identify textile composition and help their separation,” explains Albert.
The company, that was initially set up by Caritas as an NGO but has since spun out to become self-sufficient and profitable, coordinates and brings together 49 social (labour) integration projects across Spain. On the ground, Moda re- is a leader in textile recycling in Spain, with the largest network of second-hand clothes shops in the country. It’s a company whose business model hints at systems change, shifting the way we think about clothing and its typically linear lifecycle.
Sector Social business
Purpose Purchase of new machinery
Karibou
“My father comes from the plastics industry. We knew the challenges. We knew that plastic is a big issue, so we started thinking about doing something different. How could we, at scale, replace plastics?” explains Xavier Pinosa, CEO of Karibou.
Based in Sant Cugat, just outside Barcelona, Karibou produces sustainable packaging like cups, containers and cutlery through a completely sustainable manufacturing process using energy from renewable sources only, and with no toxic glues or plastic films – just paper.
“We are here to replace single-use plastics. We offer a different solution based on cellulose, plant-based materials that are biodegradable and sustainable.” What started as a family business has grown since the first piece of machinery arrived in 2021, and today the company supplies the likes of LIDL, ALDI and Heineken with packaging solutions that get the job done as well as plastic, but…without any plastic. Scaling the business is key for Xavier, as it’s through scale that the company can achieve real impact: “Every kilo of product we produce reduces CO2 emissions…and every day we improve things and aim for more.” he adds.
Sector Packaging
Purpose R&D; scale-up
Nextil
“Sustainability today is a must—social as much as environmental,” says Manuel Martos, CEO of Nextil Group. Based in Madrid, but with production facilities in the US, Portugal, and Guatemala, Nextil Group is a big player in the textile industry, offering a broad range of products within five different divisions (luxury, sports, intimate, swimwear and, medical) and services (textile production, garment manufacturing and sustainable dyeing). Recently, the company has decided to tackle its carbon footprint head-on.
The company offers a new sustainable dye solution that uses no chemicals, and significantly decreases the use of water and energy since everything happens at 25 degrees. “Now we are saving 80% on energy, 77% on water use, and adding literally no chemicals. And it can all be done in less than an hour,” he adds. “The savings in water usage alone could provide drinking water for 90m people.”
Sector Textile
Purpose Scale-up, machinery, growth
Victoria Marmili
“With front-end developing, you have to be flexible, to think like the user, who is human, but also connect to the back-end which is code,” says Victoria Marmili, an Italian national originally from Argentina but currently living in Malaga, Spain, where she changed careers, launching into the world of coding. After moving to Spain with her husband, she seized the opportunity to take a course in front-end developing.
It turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Three days before finishing the course, Victoria got a job in a consultancy, and she has since moved on, now working with Twenix. “There’s huge demand for these skills,” she adds, “and COVID really stressed the importance of the digital sphere, the web, the cloud for sales and business continuity.”
Sector Education
Purpose Re-skilling
MiCuento
“Stories and education can change the world,” says Muriel Bourgeois, co-founder of MiCuento, a company based in Barcelona that makes personalised children’s books. “I love to tell stories and to listen. That’s really where you realise that stories are so much better when you personalise them.”
MiCuento publishes story books on demand and has a library of around 40 titles, with clients able to personalise the story with their children’s names. “There are literally millions of possible combinations for every title, and the children and their friends and family become the protagonists of the story.” The company even caters to special requests, such as adapting a text for kids with dyslexia or using braille. “When was the last time you read a children’s story with a kid in a wheelchair? One mother once told me that her child doesn’t feel disheartened any more looking at a book. That’s a huge motivation for us to continue.”
Sector Edtech, social entrepreneurship
Purpose Product development
Biofor
Historically, Soria has been one of Spain’s least populated areas, with relatively low economic productivity, but companies such as Biofor are leading revitalising efforts. The company specialises in chips of recycled forest wood. Biofor mixes wood that does not meet the conditions for the sawmill industry with wood from tree trimming, obtaining forest biofuel for industrial boilers. At the same time, recycled forest chips from pallets and packaging are given a second life to produce chipboard or for use in high-powered thermal systems.
The process is simple, but the impact is huge. “This biofuel is used in industrial boilers, mostly by manufacturing companies as well as the agro-food industry, hospitals, and care homes for the elderly.” Soria is also one of the Spanish ‘capitals’ of cured meat. “Our biggest clients are two main actors in the production of jamón - the pig farms and feed producers,” adds Roberto. “We’re very happy to be supporting traditional local industries.”
Sector Social enterprise, energy/biofuels
Purpose Purchasing equipment
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
Spanish businesses
Mandates in focus
The EIF continues to deploy capital in Spain under a wide range of strategic programmes and mandates. Below are brief summaries of our main initiatives in Spain.
RRF Spain
In partnership with the Spanish Ministry of Economy, the EIF is managing two new products as part of Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRF). These include €200m under the Alternative Lending for Sustainable Development (ALSD) Instrument, designed to invest in alternative lenders and the InvestEU Member State Compartment, comprising €1.8bn in thematic portfolio guarantees focused on innovation, sustainability, and SME competitiveness.
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.
EIF-NPI Equity Platform
The EIF-NPI Equity Platform is a collaborative initiative launched by the EIF in 2016, which promotes knowledge sharing and best practices between the EIF and national promotional institutions (NPIs) or banks (NPBs) across EU Member States. Its goal is to enhance access to funding for SMEs and midcaps, support the defragmentation of equity markets, and match national, EU and private sources of funding. This initiative has guided the EIF and NPIs in implementing equity investments, including EFSI-related activities.
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.
European Angels Funds - Spain
European Angels Fund – Fondo Isabel La Católica (EAF Spain I) is a €30m initiative funded by the EIF, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) and Neotec set up to provide equity to Business Angels and other non-institutional investors for the financing of innovative companies in the form of co-investments. By the end of 2022 more than EUR 23m have been committed into 13 vehicles managed by different Business Angels in Spain. In 2019, its successor, EAF Spain II was launched: a €40m fund for financing innovative start-ups. The fund is owned 50% by the EIF and 50% by AXIS, via Fond-ICOpyme, and forms part of the pan-European European Angels Fund (EAF) initiative.
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.
FITA
FITA is a dedicated fund targeting technology transfer (TT) investments in Catalonia. The €30m mandate, launched in 2022 in partnership with Institut Català de Finances (ICF), aims to improve the availability of finance for TT projects through very early-stage equity and equity type investments aimed at commercialising the research output of local universities, ultimately to help develop and expand companies of economic relevance for Catalonia.
INCF
The Climate & Infrastructure Funds (INCF) is a facility with an annual investment capacity of €400-600m and a primary focus on climate action & environmental sustainability. Targeting a 70% climate content at portfolio level, the underlying investments are expected to contribute to the ambitious targets set out in the EIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap.
NEOTEC
Neotec Capital Riesgo is a Spanish-based €183m ‘Fund of Funds’ launched by the EIF in cooperation with the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI: Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial), the tech transfer office of the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and several other private investors, mainly Spanish blue-chip companies. Final closing was in June 2006 at EUR 183m, to which the EIF committed EUR 50m. Neotec has supported 14 venture capital funds that are based, or mainly active, in Spain – therefore acting as a catalyst for the development of the venture capital market in the country and boosting investment in innovative Spanish SMEs.
ETCI
The European Tech Champions Initiative was launched in February 2023 with EIB Group resources alongside contributions from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and hopefully soon, also other EU Member States. Managed by the EIF, this is the first of its kind growth stage fund-of-funds in Europe, with and endowment of €3.75bn of capital to tackle the European scale-up gap.
EGF
The European Guarantee Fund was created by the EIB Group with contributions from Spain 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.
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