Seed Capital Bizkaia Has Invested 4.28 Million Euros in Innovative and Socially Impactful Projects in 2024

Deputy for Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and President of Seed Capital Bizkaia, announced that the fund manager has invested a total of 4.28 million euros in 2024 through the eight funds and programs it manages: Fund I, Fund Bi, FEIS, BAF, Start Bizkaia Fund, Konfekoop Seed Bizkaia, MicroEurope and Crowdfunding Bizkaia. This figure represents an increase of 23% compared to the investments made the previous year.

The provincial entity carried out a total of 24 operations in 2024 to promote innovative projects with a social impact. Thus, it currently has 79 active operations in its portfolio, of which 9 correspond to funds and 70 to companies that invoice 16.77 million euros per year and employ 1,614 people.

2024 has been an intense year of operations in which Seed Capital Bizkaia has increased the pace of investment compared to the previous year, reaching 4.28 million euros. This has meant a total of 24 investment operations disbursed in the field of seed capital. In addition, Seed Capital Bizkaia has opted to strengthen ties with top-level European agents such as the European Investment Fund or MicroEurope and the incorporation of new investment agents, Basurko stated.

Since 1989, Seed Capital Bizkaia has been a public company that administers and manages various financing instruments for the promotion and development of businesses in the region. The manager makes investments that promote advanced entrepreneurship and the growth of companies in their earliest stages, where the financial risk is greatest.

Seed Capital Bizkaia provides these operations with the security and confidence that other investors need to participate in this type of operation. To do so, it relies on a network of 42 collaborating organisations, including banks, investment funds and seed capital funds, both public and private, family offices and accelerators.

Eight tools to finance business development in Bizkaia

Fund I provides equity loans or participation in innovative start-ups or spin-offs to support their consolidation and growth. In 2024, 800,000 euros have been invested in 5 operations through this fund, which has stakes in 30 companies belonging to the ICT, industrial, energy, metalworking, biotech, healthcare, technology, media, foodtech and cybersecurity sectors.

The Bi Fund is aimed at consolidated small and medium-sized companies with a marked innovative character and preferably technology-based, with potential for growth and job creation. During the past year, 4 operations were carried out for an amount of 1,559,968 euros. The sectors that bring together the largest percentage of the 15 companies in its portfolio are industrial, ICT, biotech, energy, services and healthcare.

During 2024, the FEIS-Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Fund, aimed at financing companies with initiatives with social impact, has allocated 300,000 euros to 2 new operations. Currently, FEIS has a portfolio of 15 participating companies in the education, circular economy, labour insertion and inclusion and health sectors.

For its part, BAF (Biscay Anchor Fund) is the Bizkaia Provincial Council’s fund of funds to invest in venture capital entities, collective investment institutions, alternative investment funds, national or foreign, and institutions that promote the creation of companies in Bizkaia. Last year it made 6 investments worth 456,685 euros.

Aimed at financing start-ups up to 5 years old that have a scalable business model, the Start Bizkaia Fund created in 2022 to promote innovative initiatives in preliminary phases has closed the 2024 financial year with 6 approved operations worth 600,000 euros.

The financial vehicle for financing cooperatives in Bizkaia promoted by Konfekoop and Seed Capital Bizkaia, Konfekoop Seed Bizkaia, has offered 3 participatory loans worth 215,000 euros during 2024.

MicroEurope, a company dedicated to innovative social investment that invests in microfinance entities with a social impact in Europe, will start a new phase in 2025 with the aim of closing investments worth 50 million euros by 2026. In 2024, it has invested 200,000 euros in an operation.

Finally, Crowdfunding Bizkaia is an equity crowdfunding platform , that is, it uses collective financing to finance and participate in the capital increase of a company. This tool connects promoters who need financing for the development of an innovative project with investors and has closed 2024 with 1 round of financing mobilizing 135,000 euros with 8 investors.

Bizkaia, an international benchmark in social impact investment

Ainara Basurko recalled that in the last week of November 2024, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Seed Capital Bizkaia organised Impact Week together with Impact Europe, the event of the year in Europe in the field of financing and investment with social and environmental impact. More than a thousand people from 60 countries attended the congress, which included 87 sessions with the participation of 272 speakers.

As part of Impact Week, the European Investment Fund, the European Investment Bank and the European Commission, within the framework of the InvestEU programme, held the first edition of the Impact Equity Forum in Bizkaia, bringing together 170 representatives of investment funds to address the possibilities of the social economy. All of this has served to strengthen Bizkaia’s position as a benchmark territory in the promotion of sustainable and responsible economic models.

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(Featured image by Yves Alarie via Unsplash)

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