26.03.2025 | News
A guarantee by the European Investment Fund, the first of its kind for an international financial institution, will increase access to financing for small and medium-sized companies based in the Nordics.
Nefco – the Nordic Green Bank – has signed a guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF). The agreement, worth EUR 70 million, is intended to increase access to financing for Nordic small and medium-sized companies across the Nordic countries. The collaboration between EIF and Nefco aims to accelerate climate action and environmental sustainability among businesses in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
“Nefco finances the international scale-up of Nordic green solutions with the potential to provide positive global impacts,” said Trond Moe, Managing Director of Nefco. “This guarantee by EIF helps us to bridge the financing gap and empower SMEs to scale innovations to build a more resilient, sustainable economy.”
Nefco is the first international financial institution (IFI) to enter into such an agreement with the EIF. The backing of the EIF, which is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, comes in the form of a guarantee under the InvestEU programme.
“This collaboration is a testament to our commitment to fostering sustainable and competitive growth in the Nordic region,” said EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros. “By providing this guarantee, we are enabling SMEs to access the financing they need to innovate and thrive.”
The EIF guarantee enables Nefco to offer loans on more favourable terms to Nordic SMEs. With 68 companies and EUR 147 million in funds committed in its SME portfolio at the end of 2024, Nefco is now looking to finance more Nordic companies developing green solutions with international scale-up potential.
“With the EIF sustainability guarantee, we can provide loans to companies working on renewable energy, industrial energy efficiency, zero- or low-emission mobility and green ICT solutions. Through the competitiveness guarantee, we can support green Nordic SMEs developing circular economy or biodiversity solutions, for example, and enhance their competitiveness in the critical growth phase,” commented Thor Thorsteinsson, VP, Nordic SMEs at Nefco.
The EIF guarantee applies to Nefco’s scale-up loan financing, subject to EIF eligibility criteria and Nefco’s investment evaluation process. Learn more about Nefco financing with EIF guarantees here.
For more information, please contact:
Thor Thorsteinsson, Vice President, Nordic SMEs
+358 10 6180 657, thor.thorsteinsson@nefco.int
Kristiina Randmaa, Press Officer, EIB Group
+352 4379 72894, press@eib.org
About the EIF
The European Investment Fund is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them access financing. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF furthers key EU policy objectives such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, climate action and environmental sustainability, and more.
About InvestEU programme
The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilise private investments for the European Union’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 currently available to support investment in the European Union, 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.