Baltic innovation gets a €225 million European boost / Article

A new €225 million fund, the Baltic Innovation Fund 3 (BIF3), will expand private and venture capital opportunities in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the European Investment Fund (EIF) announced.

Baltic Innovation Fund 3 Launched

National development finance institutions from each Baltic state – SmartCap (Estonia), Altum (Latvia), and ILTE (Lithuania) – will each contribute €50 million to BIF3. The EIF will add a further €75 million to the fund.

The initiative is projected to enable Baltic companies to raise up to €700 million over the next five years, and a total of around EUR 700 million over the next ten years, according to the EIF.

“BIF 3 aims to attract both new and experienced fund managers and, with the help of these managers, to facilitate a further large amount of private capital,” the EIF stated in a release. “This funding will be invested in growth-stage companies in the Baltic region.”

“The Baltic region has demonstrated remarkable resilience and a strong appetite for innovation,” said Marjut Falkstedt, EIF’s Executive Director. “Building on our very successful past collaboration, we want to develop a market with long-term capital that helps high-quality companies scale up and realise their ambitions.”

Reinis Bērziņš, Chairman of the Board of Altum, stated, “The Baltic Innovation Fund is a significant step towards expanding access to long-term financing for Baltic companies. Past experience shows that every euro invested in the fund attracts several times more financing for companies, creating real economic activity and new opportunities. For Latvia, this means wider access to capital for companies that want to develop and strengthen their operations in the long term.”

Bērziņš added that the initiative demonstrates how public financing can work with private capital to expand financing opportunities while relying on professional fund managers for investment decisions, creating a more stable investment environment in the Baltic region.