European Investment Fund (EIF) and Fondo Italiano d’Investimento (FII) signed a new agreement to support the development of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The two institutions will co-invest between €500-600m in private equity and private debt funds (including those investing in the mini-bonds) that focus on Italian SMEs, and in venture capital funds that invest in startups and innovative companies at both seed and later stage financing.
Additionally, in order to boost investments into newly established companies, EIF and FII consider to set up a specific fund of approximately €30m to co-invest alongside selected business angels, in line with the European Angels Fund initiative already launched and implemented by EIF.
An initial cooperation between the two institutions was established through an agreement signed in October 2011 and included a commitment of €100m from each institution. In three years, EIF and FII have jointly invested an amount of approx. €500m in 10 funds (of which €370m in 7 private equity funds and the remaining investment in venture capital funds).
This new agreement complements the recently launched two new FII’s ”funds-of-funds”, one focusing on private debt (with target size of €500m and whose first closing already took place at €250m) and the other on venture capital (with target size of €150m, whose first closing already took place at €50m and is expected to increase up to €100m within the first quarter of 2015), with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti as cornerstone investor.
FinSMEs
27/11/2014