Investor Profile: European Investment Fund - Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

The European Investment Fund is one of the most important, and most misunderstood, names in European venture capital. Founded in 1994 and based in Luxembourg, it is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized enterprises by helping them to access finance. Founders rarely pitch it directly, yet its money reaches thousands of startups through the funds and banks it backs.

Thesis: capital for the companies banks overlook

The European Investment Fund designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments aimed specifically at smaller businesses. Its work supports EU policy goals including competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, and climate action and environmental sustainability.

Its shareholders include the European Investment Bank as majority shareholder, the European Union represented by the European Commission, and various public and private financial institutions. Its chief executive is Marjut Falkstedt, named in its 2025 press material. Its overall fund size is not publicly disclosed as one headline figure. Dealroom counts 597 venture firms backed by the fund, which gives a sense of its reach across the continent.

Sectors and stages

The European Investment Fund is active across all European Union member states and selected other countries, and across sectors rather than a single vertical. Through selected venture funds it provides risk capital to enterprises in seed, startup and other early stages, broadly corresponding to seed and Series A rounds. Its guarantee and microfinance work reaches even earlier and smaller borrowers, including farmers and micro-enterprises, through banks and leasing and microfinance partners.

Programmes run

Its best known current route for fund managers is InvestEU Equity, under which it provides equity investments and co-investments to, or alongside, funds in venture capital, private equity and private credit. Interested applicants must submit a formal Expression of Interest via the EIF InvestEU Equity webpage before 30 June 2027, in English, using the Annex I form in the call documentation. The fund states clearly that it does not accept paper applications. Selection follows its internal procedures and published assessment criteria.

It also co-leads the Venture Centre of Excellence with EIT Health, a pan-European programme aiming to catalyse €2 billion in life science funding, with a €150 million anchor investment from the European Commission. In agriculture, its May 2025 second phase of the National Initiative for French Agriculture carries an investment volume of over €2 billion and is expected to benefit more than 15,000 farmers by 2028. The first phase funded almost 8,500 agricultural loans, mobilising €1 billion of credit and generating €2.7 billion of agricultural investment in France.

Credits and perks

The European Investment Fund runs no startup cloud credits or perks programme. Its benefit to founders is indirect: guarantees and equity commitments through intermediaries can lower the cost of finance. Treat it as infrastructure behind your investors, not as a grant or accelerator.

How to apply for funding

Founders do not apply to the European Investment Fund directly. The practical route is to raise from a venture fund or financial intermediary that it backs, or to contact a selected financial institution in your country through the EU access-to-finance portal for businesses. Fund managers, by contrast, apply through published calls for expression of interest on the EIF website, such as the InvestEU Equity call closing on 30 June 2027.