In January, UniCredit Bank and Komerční banka signed a guarantee agreement with The European Investment Fund; the volume of funds available to Czech innovative businesses has risen.

Komerční banka could provide up to 200mil. EUR to up to 320 small and medium-sized businesses mainly in the manufacturing sector. Komerční banka and Česká spořitelna have been cooperating with EIF since 2015. ČSOB and SG Equipment Finance followed. Read more details in Czech here. A press release in English is available here.

Recently, the EIF signed an InnovFin SME guarantee agreement with UniCredit. The agreement will allow UniCredit, via its banks, to offer additional financing worth 160mil. EUR to innovative companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Serbia. This transaction benefits from the support of Horizon 2020, the EU's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

Also, the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) signed a funding agreement to establish the Czech ESIF early stage equity Fund of Funds (FoF), with a contribution of EUR 40 million from the European Regional Development Fund. The FoF will in turn invest into risk capital funds targeting local small and medium-sized enterprises with high growth potential.

Within the Investment Plan for Europe, currently, there are 3 Czech infrastructure and innovation projects approved, amounting to nearly EUR 79 million in European Investment Bank (EIB) financing under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). This is expected to trigger almost EUR 270 million in investments. Under EFSI the European Investment Fund, there are 6 Czech SME financing agreements approved. The financing totals EUR 275 million and is expected to trigger over EUR 1.6 billion in investments. Some 12,000 smaller companies or start-ups should benefit from this support. Read country reports on the state of play of Investment Plan for Europe.