Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Funds, Good for Business, Investments, Markets and Companies

"Announcing these EstFund's investments, KredEx marks a further step towards the development of the Estonian venture capital market. By mobilizing other investors, including funds from the private sector, this is expected to result in overall investments of almost 100 million euros that would further help to build successful companies in Estonia," Kredex chief executive Lehar Kutt said in a press release.

"With this investment into Tera Ventures Fund II and Equity United PE I, the EstFund and EIF aim to support many innovative promising Estonian enterprises. There are currently only a handful of early-stage equity investors active on the Estonian market, and these investments should play a catalytic role in promoting an underserved part of the equity market and supporting the SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) eco-system in Estonia," Pier Luigi Gilibert, chief executive of EIF, said.

Tera Ventures Fund II will focus towards venture capital investments into innovative early stage companies. Equity United PE I will provide expansion capital to SMEs with high growth potential that are aiming to expand to new products or markets. Before starting actively investing in the Estonian market, the fund managers have to involve additional resources from private investors, which is to be completed in the upcoming months.

EstFund aims to develop the early and expansion stage equity market in Estonia by providing equity financing to high growth SMEs and attract private investors to the local market.

A third investment under EstFund had been signed at the end of 2017 into United Angels Co-investment Fund I that is now actively co-investing together with the other private investors into early stage Estonian SMEs.

These transactions complete the fund managers' selection process under EstFund, managed by EIF on behalf of the Estonian Ministry of Economics and Communications and Kredex. It underlines the importance of continued support to the development of the equity sector in the region which is of key importance in fostering high growth innovative SMEs and hence economic growth.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops both venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth and employment.

KredEx is a financing institution that helps Estonian enterprises develop quicker and expand more safely to foreign markets, offering loans, venture capital, credit insurance and credit guarantees with state guarantee.

The EstFund is an equity fund of funds created by cooperation between the Republic of Estonia, Kredex and the European Investment Fund. The EstFund is financed by the European Regional Development Fund from the Operational Program for Cohesion Policy Funds 2014-2020 in an amount of 48 million euros, and EIF is co-investing 12 million euros alongside through the EIF-managed resources. These funds will offer equity financing from seed to growth for Estonian SMEs via the selected equity funds.