InvestEU Programme 2026 — Funding, Eligibility & How to Apply

Funding available

€400bnEU budget guarantee mobilising debt, guarantees and equity via implementing partners — not a grant

Success rateDemand from implementing partners ran ~100% oversubscribed at the last cut-off

2026 budget€29.1bn

On this page · 15 sections→

01Overview
02Is this for you?
03Financial products & windows
04Success rates
05Eligibility
06Funding detail
07How to apply
08Documents needed
09Budget breakdown
10After you're funded
11Practical notes
12Who's been funded
13Key features
14Official links
15FAQ

The programme

Overview

InvestEU is the EU's flagship investment-mobilisation engine for 2021-2027. It is not a grant programme and you do not apply to Brussels for it. Instead, the EU sets aside a €29.1 billion budget guarantee (raised from €26.2 billion by the Omnibus II Regulation, in force since December 2025) that absorbs first losses for "implementing partners" — chiefly the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and its venture arm the European Investment Fund (EIF), plus national promotional banks (such as KfW, Bpifrance, CDP) and bodies like the EBRD. That guarantee lets those institutions take more risk than they otherwise would. By mid-2026 InvestEU had already mobilised around €400 billion of public and private investment — beating its original €372 billion target — and a June 2026 Commission–EIB Group agreement added a further €22 billion of strategic financing expected to generate roughly €70 billion more by the end of 2027. As a founder you tap it indirectly: a bank gives you a loan it can price more cheaply because the EU backs part of the portfolio, or a venture-capital or private-credit fund invests in your company because the EIF anchored that fund using InvestEU money. The Programme has three pillars — the InvestEU Fund (the guarantee itself), the InvestEU Advisory Hub (technical assistance to prepare bankable projects), and the InvestEU Portal (a free EU-wide marketplace where project promoters list opportunities for investors). Money flows through four policy windows, whose original €26.2bn allocation was split as: sustainable infrastructure (€9.9bn of guarantee), research, innovation and digitisation (€6.6bn), SMEs (€6.9bn), and social investment and skills (€2.8bn).

2026 Budget€29.1bn EU budget guarantee (raised from €26.2bn by the Omnibus II Regulation, Dec 2025)

Average GrantNot applicable — InvestEU provides loans, guarantees and equity, not grants

Be clear-eyed about what InvestEU is and is not.

Fit

Is this for you?

This is built for a viable, growth-stage European business that needs capital — a loan, a guarantee, or equity — and is comfortable getting it through a bank or fund rather than a grant office. If you are an SME or small mid-cap looking for cheaper or longer-tenor debt, a scale-up that wants a VC or private-credit fund that the EIF has anchored, or an infrastructure or clean-tech project promoter needing risk capital, this is for you. If you are chasing non-dilutive, non-repayable money for an early-stage deep-tech prototype, look elsewhere — the EIC Accelerator grant or the Innovation Fund fit better. InvestEU does not write you a cheque from Brussels; it makes private lenders and investors say yes more often, on better terms.

A good fit if

SME or small mid-cap (≤499 staff) needing a loan, guarantee or lease via a bank
Startup raising from a VC or private-credit fund backed by the EIF
Larger company or project promoter with a bankable infra / R&D / digital project (EIB direct)
Economically viable but "too risky for the bank": thin collateral, intangibles, deep tech
Any EU member state — demand-driven, no national envelopes

Probably not if

Wanting non-dilutive grant cash → EIC Accelerator (InvestEU is debt and equity, you repay or dilute)
Research consortium doing collaborative R&D → Horizon Europe Pillar 2
Idea-stage venture with no revenue path a bank can price → EIC Pathfinder or national pre-seed grants
Firms "in difficulty" — the rules require economically viable recipients

You never apply to "InvestEU" itself. The brand sits behind ~18 implementing partners (EIB Group, EBRD, national promotional banks) and hundreds of local banks and funds — your application goes to them, on their forms, judged by their credit committee.

Focus areas

Financial products & windows

Sustainable Infrastructure window

The largest of the four InvestEU policy windows, taking 37.8% of the original EU budget guarantee allocation. It backs financing for sustainable energy, digital connectivity, transport, the circular economy, water, waste and other environmental infrastructure. Most of this is delivered by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which implements 75% of the overall EU guarantee.

Clean energy, digital connectivity, transport and circular-economy infrastructure projects

Research, Innovation & Digitisation window

This window takes 25.2% of the guarantee and de-risks investment into research, breakthrough innovation and the digital transition. It is the window most likely to reach deep-tech founders, typically through equity and venture-debt instruments deployed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EIB Group's SME-focused arm.

R&D, deep tech, breakthrough innovation and digitisation

SME window

At 26.3% of the guarantee, this window improves access to finance for small and medium-sized companies and small mid-caps, including innovative firms and the cultural and creative sectors. It is run almost entirely through the EIF, which does not lend directly but guarantees and invests via a network of banks, debt funds and VC funds across Europe.

Loans, guarantees and equity for SMEs and small mid-caps via intermediaries

Social Investment & Skills window

The smallest window at 10.7% of the guarantee, it covers microfinance, social enterprise, skills, education and social infrastructure. For founders this typically appears as the EIF's Microfinance, Social and Skills portfolio guarantee, which lets intermediaries lend to borrowers banks see as too risky or under-collateralised.

Microfinance, social enterprise, skills and education finance

EIF guarantees: what founders actually receive

Founders almost never touch InvestEU directly. Instead the EIF signs portfolio guarantees with banks and lenders, who pass on cheaper, less-collateralised loans. The EIF runs six such products (SME Competitiveness, Sustainability, Innovation & Digitalisation, Cultural & Creative Sectors, Microfinance, and Skills & Education) and is charged with deploying €17.9 billion of debt financing.

Bank loans with lighter collateral demands, via guaranteed lenders

EIF equity & venture debt for scale-ups

On the equity side the EIF invests InvestEU resources into venture capital, private equity and private-credit funds rather than into companies directly. That capital then reaches scale-ups as equity tickets or venture debt through the backed funds. The EIF reports its InvestEU resources of roughly €14.8 billion (EU and Member State compartments) split about 40% equity and 60% debt across signed deals.

Equity and venture-debt tickets via EIF-backed VC, PE and private-credit funds

The odds

Success rates — the honest picture

Be clear-eyed about what InvestEU is and is not. There is no headline "success rate" for founders because there is no founder-facing competition you win — you are not ranked against thousands of other applicants. You go to a participating bank or fund and they assess you on ordinary commercial criteria, with the EU guarantee quietly improving your odds and your terms. The competitive bottleneck sits one level up: demand for the guarantee from banks and national promotional banks was almost 100% oversubscribed at the November 2025 cut-off of the Call for Expression of Interest (€1.6bn on offer), and demand has stayed high through the cut-offs that followed into 2026, which tells you the cheap risk capacity is scarce and intermediaries ration it. The practical catch is invisibility — most SMEs never realise their EIB-intermediated loan or their fund's EIF backing is InvestEU at all, and the hardest part is simply finding which lender in your country offers an InvestEU-covered product. The money is repayable or dilutive: a loan you must pay back, or equity you give up. Treat it as better-priced finance, not free money, and the disappointment evaporates.

The published scoreboard — no calls, no cut-offs

Metric	Published figure	As of
EU budget guarantee (raised from €26.2B)	€29.1B	post-Omnibus II, Dec 2025
Investment mobilisation target	≥ €372B	by 2027
Investment actually mobilised	~€400B	end-2025 (target beaten two years early)
SMEs expected to benefit	130,000+	June 2026 (EC–EIB)
EIB Group share of the guarantee	75%	programme design
Approved implementing partners	18	end-2025
Stated leverage per guarantee euro	~15×	EIB, June 2026

There are no application deadlines, evaluation committees or success-rate statistics to game: InvestEU is demand-driven. The real gate is a bank or fund’s credit decision — which means the “odds” depend on your financials, not an EU jury.

Who qualifies

Eligibility

1Your business or project must be economically viable according to internationally accepted standards — InvestEU underwrites commercial risk, not turnaround or rescue financing.
2You must be established in an EU Member State, or in an eligible associated third country where the specific window allows it.
3If you are an SME, small mid-cap or micro-enterprise, you apply through a local commercial or public bank, microfinance institution, or VC/private-credit fund — not to the EIB Group or EIF directly.
4If you are a larger firm, mid-cap or infrastructure project promoter seeking large-ticket finance, you may approach an implementing partner such as the EIB directly.
5Your financing need must map onto one of the four policy windows: sustainable infrastructure; research, innovation and digitisation; SMEs; or social investment and skills.
6The participating financial intermediary takes the final credit or investment decision under its own commercial criteria, so meeting EU eligibility does not guarantee approval.

The fine print

Geography is tighter than Horizon Europe — no UK, no Switzerland

Final recipients must be established and operating in an EU member state, an Overseas Country or Territory (Annex II of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU), or an 'Other Participating Country' — as of 17 November 2023 that means only Norway and Iceland. Liechtenstein opted out; the UK and Switzerland have no InvestEU access at all, unlike their (partial) Horizon Europe association. More countries may join over time, but assume EU-27 plus the two Nordics.

An EDES listing is an automatic kill

Anyone on the Commission's Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) database — for bankruptcy or insolvency, unpaid taxes or social-security contributions, grave professional misconduct, fraud or corruption, serious breach of contract, or shell companies built to dodge fiscal and social obligations — is deemed ineligible as a final recipient. You must formally represent that you are not listed when signing the guaranteed loan; the same test applies to the lender itself.

The small mid-cap test counts heads, not turnover

Products are gated by size class. SME status follows Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC; if you fail that, you may still qualify as a small mid-cap with fewer than 500 full-time-equivalent employees — turnover and balance-sheet totals are explicitly irrelevant to the mid-cap test. The catch: headcount is calculated under Articles 3–6 of the Recommendation's annex, so staff of linked and partner enterprises count against you. Assessed at signature of the loan, not at application.

Per-company ceilings (obligor limits) cap how much you can stack

Aggregate outstanding InvestEU-backed debt per borrower is capped: €7.5m under the SME Competitiveness guarantee, €8.25m maximum principal under other portfolio guarantee products — but only €2.2m where a national promotional bank lends to you directly — and up to €16.5m cumulatively under the Sustainability product for qualifying green investments. Small mid-caps must self-declare all InvestEU-supported debt from any implementing partner; it all counts toward the limit.

Grant-stacking rules are real, and refinancing is mostly out

You may combine an InvestEU-guaranteed loan with EU grants, but the grant cannot repay the loan, the loan cannot pre-finance the grant, and combined Union support must not exceed total project cost. Refinancing existing debt is capped at 10% of the loan's initial principal (solvency-support transactions excepted). National grants, by contrast, are unrestricted by InvestEU — and prior COSME or InnovFin guarantee beneficiaries remain eligible.

Excluded sectors and the additionality test

Annex V of the InvestEU Regulation bars excluded activities — gambling, tobacco, oil and fossil fuels, real estate and activities violating human rights among them — regardless of how good the credit looks. Projects must also address a market failure or investment gap, be economically viable, and genuinely need the EU backing (additionality); under the Innovation and Digitalisation product, one route in requires a technology right (patent, utility model, software copyright — tech-related trademarks count) registered within the last 36 months.

The money

The money — a guarantee, not a grant

EU budget guarantee€29.1B2021–27; raised to €29.1B by Omnibus II (Dec 2025); provisioned at 40%

Investment mobilised~€400Bby end-2025 — already past the €372B 2027 target

Four policy windows€9.9B + €6.6B + €6.9B + €2.8Binfrastructure · research/innovation/digital · SMEs · social & skills

Grant component€0it is loans, guarantees and equity — repayable or dilutive

Good to know

The EU insures the lender, not you.

InvestEU puts a €29.1B EU budget guarantee (raised from €26.2B by Omnibus II in December 2025) behind banks and funds so they finance deals their credit committees would otherwise refuse — under-collateralised SMEs, intangible-heavy deep tech, first-of-a-kind infrastructure. Only 40% is cash set aside as a buffer; the rest is contingent liability. You still sign a normal loan or term sheet at the intermediary’s commercial terms — the guarantee is largely invisible to you.

You never apply to Brussels.

The EIB Group implements 75% of the guarantee; the rest goes through 17 other partners such as the EBRD and national promotional banks (Bpifrance, CDP, ICO, BGK, Invest-NL). An SME walks into a partner bank or pitches an EIF-backed venture fund; a large project promoter negotiates directly with the EIB. Find your local intermediary on the EU’s Access to Finance portal — there is no central InvestEU application form.

Leverage is the whole point — and the catch.

EIB president Nadia Calviño’s own line: every euro of guarantee mobilises fifteen euros of investment. That multiplier is why €29.1B in guarantees targets over €400B in mobilised investment — already reached by end-2025 — and why the money arrives at market-style terms, not concessional ones. Partners must also bring at least 25% of their own risk-bearing capacity, so they only back deals they believe will repay.

Topped up in 2025–26.

The Omnibus II regulation (December 2025) raised the guarantee to unlock at least €55B in extra investment, added €40M to the Advisory Hub and cut SME reporting burdens by an estimated €350M. On 10 June 2026 the Commission and EIB Group signed a further €22B of strategic financing — expected impact around €70B — aimed at clean tech, biotech, digital and high-potential scale-ups.

The process

How to apply — step by step

1
Decide which door you are knocking on1 day
InvestEU is not a Commission grant call: there is no proposal to submit to Brussels and no money paid to a final business directly by the EU. The €26.2bn EU budget guarantee is channelled through implementing partners (chiefly the EIB Group, plus national promotional banks and international financial institutions), which in turn back commercial financial intermediaries (banks, leasing firms, guarantee schemes, VC/PE and private-credit funds). First establish your role: a final-recipient SME/mid-cap looking for finance, a financial intermediary wanting an EIF guarantee or equity commitment, or an institution seeking implementing-partner status. The rest of the route differs entirely by role.
2
Final recipients: find an InvestEU intermediary and apply to it, not to the EUVaries by lender (weeks)
If you are an SME, innovator or small mid-cap, you do not apply to InvestEU or the European Investment Fund (EIF). You locate a participating bank, guarantee institution or fund in your country via the EU Access to Finance portal, then apply to that intermediary directly under its own products, terms and eligibility rules. The intermediary lends or invests on commercial terms, with InvestEU absorbing part of its risk via the EU guarantee; you receive a normal loan, guarantee or equity ticket. Decision speed and credit criteria are the intermediary's, not the EU's.
3
Financial intermediaries: respond to an EIF Call for Expression of Interest4-8 weeks to prepare
Banks, alternative lenders, leasing companies, (counter-)guarantee schemes and fund managers apply to the EIF under open-ended Calls for Expression of Interest, choosing one or more Guarantee products or, for fund managers, a Thematic Strategy under the Equity product. You submit an Expression of Interest / application form (by email for most guarantee products, or via the online equity application form) against the formal eligibility criteria in the relevant Call. Calls run on a rolling, first-come basis with a final cut-off of 30 June 2027, subject to budget availability ending it earlier.
4
EIF due diligence, selection and (counter-)guarantee or equity agreement3-6 months
The EIF assesses applicants through a standard due-diligence process: formal eligibility, operational and financial capacity, compliance with EU standards, and — for equity — fit with the chosen Thematic Strategy and Horizontal Priorities (e.g. female-led teams, innovation, cohesion). There is no public points-and-thresholds scoreboard for intermediaries; selection is a pass/fail diligence judgement. Successful applicants sign a (counter-)guarantee agreement or an equity commitment letter with the EIF, after which they can on-lend or invest to final recipients.
5
Institutions: become an implementing partner via pillar assessment6-12 months
National promotional banks and international financial institutions seeking to deploy the EU guarantee themselves respond to the Commission's Call for Expression of Interest. They must pass a 'pillar assessment': (1) submit an application form to the Commission, (2) the Commission checks eligibility, (3) an independent external audit verifies the institution complies with EU rules per formal Terms of Reference. The Commission then negotiates the financial products and conditions, concluding with a signed guarantee agreement that confers implementing-partner status. The EIB Group holds 75% of the guarantee; the 2nd Call's later cut-offs allocated tranches such as €1.6bn (cut-off closed 28 Nov 2025).

Paperwork

Documents you'll need

How does the InvestEU Fund work?Web

Official explainer of the guarantee model, the €26.2bn EU guarantee, the four policy windows and the implementing-partner / intermediary chain — read first to understand why there is no direct EU application.

View document

InvestEU Fund – SME window (DG GROW)Web

Commission page confirming the EIF runs the integrated SME-window guarantee facility and that SMEs reach finance through intermediaries, not the EU directly.

View document

EIF InvestEU — How to ApplyWeb

The EIF's authoritative step-by-step for financial intermediaries: which products, how to submit an Expression of Interest, and links into each Call's documentation.

View document

EIF InvestEU — Guarantee productsWeb

Eligibility criteria, the standard due-diligence selection process, and the (counter-)guarantee agreement, including the 30 June 2027 application deadline for intermediaries.

View document

EIF InvestEU — Equity productWeb

For fund managers: the online application route and the Thematic Strategies and Horizontal Priorities the EIF assesses an equity applicant's strategy against.

View document

InvestEU implementing partnersWeb

For national promotional banks / IFIs: the Call for Expression of Interest, the three-step pillar assessment, and Commission negotiation toward a guarantee agreement.

View document

Budget split

Typical Budget Breakdown

Sustainable infrastructure window€9.9bn of guarantee

Research, innovation & digitisation window€6.6bn of guarantee

SME window€6.9bn of guarantee

Social investment & skills window€2.8bn of guarantee

After the grant

After you're funded

Commercial discipline, not Brussels oversight

Your contract is with the bank or fund, on their terms: repayment schedules for debt, board seats and dilution for EIF-backed equity. The intermediary monitors you; the EU guarantee only fires if the portfolio sours. There is no EU project officer, no periodic technical review, no deliverables.

InvestEU Advisory Hub on tap

The central entry point for technical assistance — project identification, preparation and structuring — successor to the European Investment Advisory Hub. Omnibus II added €40M to its budget in December 2025. Most useful for infrastructure and public-interest promoters whose projects are sound but not yet bankable.

Free shop window on the InvestEU Portal

Promoters from the EU, Norway and Iceland can publish projects free of charge on the EU-wide investment database. Listed projects are visible to investors worldwide and reviewed by implementing partners (EIB Group and others) whose scope they match — a matchmaking channel, not a funding decision.

Your name on a public list

Intermediaries report final-recipient data upstream: the EIF publishes lists of financial intermediaries, sub-intermediaries and final recipients under InvestEU. Expect basic transparency about your firm having received guaranteed financing. Post-Omnibus II, SME reporting is simplified — the Commission estimates up to €350M in saved administrative costs.

Repeat access as you grow

Because the SME window (€6.9B) covers SMEs and small mid-caps up to 499 employees, and the EIB lends directly to larger projects, companies can graduate from an EIF-guaranteed bank loan to EIF-backed venture rounds to direct EIB venture debt without leaving the InvestEU umbrella.

On the ground

Practical notes

There is no application form — you reach InvestEU through a bank or fund, not Brussels

InvestEU is an EU budgetary guarantee, not a call-based grant, so SMEs and project promoters never apply to the Commission. The EU guarantee is channelled through implementing partners (the EIB Group plus national promotional banks and international financial institutions), and those partners select financial intermediaries — local banks, guarantee institutions, microfinance bodies and VC/PE funds — who actually lend to or invest in you on InvestEU-backed terms. Practically, you walk into a participating intermediary and ask for their InvestEU-supported product; you will rarely see InvestEU branding on the loan itself.

Use EIF's 'Where to access finance' country locator to find who actually offers the product

Instead of guessing which lender carries an InvestEU guarantee, use the EIF 'Where to access finance' page (eif.org/eif.org/what_we_do/where), which lets you pick your country and contact the local financial intermediaries directly about conditions and eligibility. The EIF also publishes downloadable lists of all signed intermediaries and sub-intermediaries under the InvestEU debt-financing window, and the multilingual accesstofinance.eu portal aggregates further EU-supported finance sources.

The InvestEU Advisory Hub gives free project-structuring help — and using it does not commit you to anything

The Advisory Hub, run by the EIB and financed by the EU budget, is the one-stop shop for advice on feasibility, business-plan review, financing structure, permitting and capacity building. You apply via the Central Entry Point using EU Login, answering a short questionnaire on location, sector, support type and maturity so it can route you to the right advisory partner. Crucially, using the Hub does not require you to seek InvestEU financing and does not entitle you to it — they are deliberately decoupled, so advisory help is genuinely a free de-risking step, not a gate to a loan.

Read the per-product Call for Expression of Interest if you are a fund or intermediary, not an SME

If you are a VC/PE fund, bank or microfinance institution wanting to distribute InvestEU money (rather than borrow it), the route is the EIF's product-specific Calls for Expression of Interest: you download the application package from the relevant guarantee or equity product page and submit it by email to the EIF, which runs standard due diligence before signing a guarantee or investment agreement. These calls are typically open with rolling/periodic deadlines per product rather than a single annual cut-off, so check each product page for its own timetable.

Track record

Who's been funded

BBVA Spark€200 million guarantee

BBVA Spark startup financing guarantee

The EIF granted BBVA a €200 million guarantee so its BBVA Spark unit could expand venture-debt and growth financing for innovative, sustainable startups.

SpainProject

Santander€200 million guarantee (unlocking €280 million in new financing)

Banco Santander SME guarantee

A €200 million EIF guarantee lets Banco Santander provide up to €280 million in new financing to SMEs and small mid-caps.

SpainProject

Arbevelup to €72 million

Arbevel private-debt fund guarantee

The EIF backed Arbevel's private-debt fund with a portfolio guarantee of up to €72 million to finance SME and lower-mid-cap growth.

FranceProject

BOŚ Bankup to €40 million (unlocking up to €60 million in financing)

BOŚ Bank green portfolio guarantee

Poland's first fully sustainable InvestEU portfolio guarantee, worth up to €40 million, lets BOŚ Bank lend up to €60 million in green debt to micro, small and mid-sized firms.

PolandProject

Avanseoup to €38 million

Avanseo microfinance guarantee

An EIF portfolio guarantee supports up to €38 million in financing for microenterprises and individuals who struggle to access credit markets.

Project

123 IM€10.5 million guarantee (unlocking up to €15 million)

123 Investment Managers inclusion guarantee

A €10.5 million EIF guarantee lets 123 Investment Managers extend up to €15 million in financing to small businesses and individuals excluded from mainstream credit in France.

FranceProject

At a glance

Key Features

€29.1bn EU guarantee (up from €26.2bn under the Omnibus II Regulation, Dec 2025); over €400bn already mobilised

Accessed indirectly via banks, VC funds and national promotional banks — never the Commission directly

Four policy windows: sustainable infrastructure, R&I&digitisation, SMEs, social investment & skills

EIB Group implements 75% of the guarantee; EIF anchors VC and private-credit funds

Repayable finance or equity, not non-dilutive money

Continuous access — no founder-facing deadline; you apply to an intermediary whenever you need finance

Sources

Official links & resources

Frequently Asked Questions

No. InvestEU is an EU budget guarantee that backs loans, guarantees and equity provided by banks and funds. You either repay a loan or give up equity — it is finance on better terms, not non-repayable money.

Indirectly. You apply to a participating bank or fund — found through the EU's Access to Finance portal — which lends to you or invests in your company, while the EU guarantee absorbs part of the risk in the background and improves your terms.

The EIC Accelerator gives early-stage deep-tech startups non-dilutive grants plus optional equity. InvestEU gives no grants — it expands the supply and lowers the cost of debt and VC/private-credit equity for viable, growth-stage businesses.

The main partner is the EIB Group, which implements 75% of the EU guarantee, along with its venture arm the European Investment Fund (EIF). The guarantee is also open to national promotional banks and institutions (such as KfW, Bpifrance and CDP) and international financial institutions like the EBRD.

It rests on a €29.1 billion EU budget guarantee (raised from €26.2 billion by the Omnibus II Regulation in December 2025). By mid-2026 it had already mobilised around €400 billion of public and private investment, exceeding its original €372 billion target.

Not as a founder. Financing is offered on a rolling basis through intermediaries. The published cut-off dates for the Call for Expression of Interest bind the banks and institutions competing for the guarantee, not the businesses seeking finance.

Use the EU's Access to Finance (access2finance) portal, which lists intermediaries whose products carry InvestEU guarantee coverage, organised by country and financing type.