Deadline: 14/06/2022

Financing type: ESF Project Grants

Programme: European Social Fund + (ESF)

Main objective: This call aims to further support the development of the social investment market and facilitate access to finance for social enterprises through grants to intermediaries in the social enterprise finance field to partially cover the transaction costs. The envisaged activities are based on the fact that the most important funding gap for social enterprises is below EUR 500 000. However, the transaction costs for such small tickets can be high which gives an incentive to social impact fund managers to focus on higher amounts in order to preserve the fund's sustainability. This can lead to a mismatch between needed and sustainable ticket sizes.

Who is eligible:

• legal entities (public or private bodies)
• established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  • non-EU countries:
  • listed EEA countries and countries associated to the ESF+ or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
• an investment fund, a Fund-of-Funds, a special purpose vehicle, or a (co-) investment scheme in any form. There are two options available:
  • either the legal entity of the investment fund, the Fund-of-Funds, the special purpose vehicle or the (co-) investment scheme can be an applicant.
  • or the organisation managing the investment fund, the Fund-of-Funds, the special purpose vehicle, or the (co-) investment scheme can be an applicant. For the avoidance of doubt, the managing organisation must already be an established and registered legal entity at the time of the submission of the application

Expected results:

An increased number of risk-capital investments of below EUR 500 000 in social enterprises.