Deadline: 15 July 2017
The European Union is currently seeking proposals under its Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme for Transaction cost support for social enterprise finance.
The European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” 2014-20202 is a European-level financing instrument managed directly by the European Commission to contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, by providing financial support for the Union’s objectives in terms of promoting a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.
The objective of the call is to test a transaction cost support scheme in the form of a grant to be combined with financial instruments as a means to address the mismatch of needed and sustainable ticket sizes. More particularly, it aims at catalysing smaller risk-capital investments of below EUR 500 000 that otherwise would not happen. The grant is aimed at financial intermediaries that undertake long term risk capital investments in ticket sizes of less than EUR 500 000 in the form of equity, quasi-equity, or hybrid financing (see annex II for a glossary) to social enterprises in the EaSI Participating Countries . It will serve to lower the transaction costs for these small investment tickets and thus help overcome a market failure in the social enterprise finance market.
Programme Aims
The EaSI Programme shall, in all its axes and actions, aim to:
- pay particular attention to vulnerable groups, such as young people;
- promote equality between women and men,
- combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation;
- promote a high-level of quality and sustainable employment, guarantee adequate and decent social protection, combat long-term unemployment and fight against poverty and social exclusion.
Programme Activities
The programme activities include:
- travelling to meet (potential) investees;
- screening and processing investment applications;
- preparing legal documents, potentially with a lawyers’ advice;
- carrying out the due diligence, including assessing (potential) impact;
- providing investment readiness, scaling readiness or business restructuring support;
- bringing in co-investors;
- managing the investments and monitoring social impact
Funding Information
- The total budget earmarked for the EU co-financing of projects under this call is estimated at EUR 3 million.
- The EU grant requested should indicatively be between EUR 300 000 and EUR 1 million.
- The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.
Eligibility Criteria
- Legal entities properly established and registered in the following countries are eligible as applicants (sole or lead and co-applicants):
- To be eligible, the applicant (sole or lead and co-applicants) must be:
- An investment fund, a Fund-of-Funds, a special purpose vehicle, in any form, established or to be established In this case, there are 2 options:
- Either the legal entity of the investment fund, the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle can be an applicant.
- Or the (future) manager of the investment fund, of the Fund-of-Funds or the special purpose vehicle (established or to be established) can be applicant. For the avoidance of doubt, the (future) manager must already be an established and registered legal entity at the time of the submission of the application.
- A (co-) investment scheme in any form (including managed accounts and other types of contractual arrangements) established or to be established.
- An investment fund, a Fund-of-Funds, a special purpose vehicle, in any form, established or to be established In this case, there are 2 options:
- To be eligible, actions must be fully carried out in eligible participating EaSI countries.
How to Apply
Interested entities must submit proposals in a prescribed format, online via given website.
Eligible Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
For more information, please visit EaSI Call for Proposals.