EIB to invest 50 million euros in start-ups in Germany

Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 will receive funding to support innovative start-ups in Bavaria

Yesterday, 23 March 2021, The European Investment bank (EIB) announced in a press release the decision to allocate up to 50 million euros in risk financing to the venture capital fund Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 in Bavaria, Germany. 115 million euros of the overall target size of 165 million euros had already been agreed and invested last year.

Wachstumsfonds Bayern 2 (WBF2) is a venture capital fund managed by Bayern Kapital, the venture capital organisation of the Free State of Bavaria and LfA Förderbank, Bavaria’s development bank.

Under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which is the main pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe, the funding is the first EFSI project in Germany with a regional promotional bank.

Start-ups in robotics, digitisation and artificial intelligence

WBF2 will provide financial support to Bavaria's innovative start-ups, working in fields such as robotics, digitisation, industrial manufacturing processes, artificial intelligence or life sciences, enabling them to maintain their early-mover advantage, scale up their business and continue their expansion.

The Bavarian State Minister for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, Hubert Aiwanger, supported the EIB's entry into WFB2: "The €50 million from the EIB will make WFB2 even more effective. This means that even more Bavarian start-ups will receive reliable support for large-volume financing rounds and will be able to press ahead with their internationalisation strategies, the opening up of new markets, as well as approval studies and the further development or diversification of their own product ranges.”

New opportunities for the entire European market

As start-ups and innovations are central to Europe’s future growth, the financing expansion for high-tech businesses will benefit the entire European market and will create many new jobs in different industries.

The Investment Plan for Europe is an initiative that assists investments and with the EIB and EIF are sharing projects that have higher risks to encourage the participation of private financings. Up until now the EFSI has supported 1.4 million start-ups and SMEs across Europe and has mobilised 546.5 billion euros.