Two-billion-euro bailout for start-ups is extended

The Federal Ministry of Finance has extended coronavirus aid for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to the tune of two billion euros until the middle of next year.

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) is continuing its financial support for start-ups to the tune of billions of euros until next year. The KfW development bank has been commissioned to continue providing the two billion euros from the package of measures until June 30, 2021. Initially, the Ministry of Finance had only scheduled the funding until the end of the year. The financial package was originally set up in May of this year and consists of two pillars.

Pillar one supports venture capitalists as part of the existing cooperation with the venture capital fund KfW Capital and the European Investment Fund. Venture capital funds can apply for liquidity assistance for their investments. To date, around 860 million euros have been approved by the BMF. The funds thus provide financial support to around 350 start-ups.

Pillar 2 is intended to support all those start-ups and SMEs that do not have access to venture capital. They can receive money from the two billion euro pot via the state development institutes, for example. The annual turnover of the companies must not exceed 75 million euros. So far, funding institutes from 14 federal states are represented. The institutions from Hesse and Saarland are still missing, but according to the BMF, they will follow shortly. So far, loan agreements amounting to 556 million euros have been concluded in this way.