INVEGA’s Direct loans have sparked more innovation and entrepreneurship in the Lithuanian business. “Accelerator 2” is meant to invest in a high-growing companies that are in pre-seed or seed stages. Good ideas from Valencia Region, Portugal, Slovenia and Poland have helped to improve the local innovation and startup financing eco-system.
The lack of financing alternatives, as well as a low level of commercialization of new products and the underinvestment of the deep technology and life science industries have been identified in Lithuania. Direct loans offered by INVEGA is due to become a promising financial instrument that will enhance the Lithuanian business environment by sparking more innovation and supporting entrepreneurship. This financial instrument will scale up private and leverage public spending by building a pipeline of investments of the new business entities and RDI projects run by innovative businesses.
“Accelerator 2” will increase initial funding accessibility to start-ups and will provide business-development oriented training programs. This financial instrument has the potential to substantially improve the Lithuanian entrepreneurship eco-system and foster start-ups ecosystem development. It should ultimately contribute to the increased level of competitiveness of Lithuania and overall business productivity.
Good practices from Valencia Region, Portugal, Slovenia and Poland have helped to improve the local innovation and startup financing system.
Key Learnings from the Innova-FI project:
1. Investing private and public money enables the leveraging of expertise and funding, minimizes the private sector investment risks and increases its willingness to finance riskier projects. Besides that, such model attracts more additional private investors.
2. Public loans can offer the funding to enterprises based on approved reports and cost statements.
3. Accelerators combine both financial support to start-ups as a grant and as an equity investment. The example of TechnoBIT inspired the provision of combination of such services to start-ups in Lithuania.
