Seed Capital SME finance initiatives
SME finance initiatives that are of strategic interest for the DGGF, but too young, small or risky for an investment to form part of the DGGF investment portfolio, can apply for support from this Seed Capital SME Finance programme.
Up to € 1 million for innovative SME finance initiatives
In order to spur innovation in SME finance and move the finance frontier to underserved SME markets, DGGF’s SC&BD facility supports promising early stage SME finance initiatives with up to € 1 million per initiative. The SC&BD facility offers a variety of instruments and services to kick start these finance initiatives: Seed Capital, Technical Assistance, Business Development Support.
… that successfully confront the following challenges
The SC&BD facility is especially interested in supporting initiatives that have an innovative approach to combat one or more of the following – interrelated – fundamental challenges of SME finance:
- High information asymmetry – the difficulty to get access to reliable performance data, track records, money multiples, etc.
- Lack of collateral – limited possibility to secured lending due to absence of registered collateral
- Transaction costs – high transaction costs due to small investment tickets
- Limited deal flow/growth potential – limited deal flow and growth potential of entrepreneurs due to the lack of access to markets and talents.
For example, the innovation may build on, but is not limited to, integrated service models, automated valuation approaches, post-seed finance initiatives, P2P/crowd-funding communities, non-traditional sources of long-term capital, smart partnerships, psychometrics, supply chain models, big/lean data initiatives, etc.
The DGGF is especially interested in innovative, sustainable and scalable proposals that make SME finance work for female entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in fragile states.
Application & selection process
Interested parties are invited to share their proposal and pitch-book. More information can be found in the factsheet below.