Bulgaria: EIB signs an additional loan for €50 million with Sofia Municipality
The new loan will increase the share of urban development projects with a focus on pedestrian mobility infrastructure.
It was granted following authorisation for additional financing, topping up the original €60 million framework loan approved in 2021.
EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova and Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova voiced their satisfaction with the longstanding fruitful cooperation between the municipality and the Bank.
The signature of a loan by the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a further €50 million for Sofia Municipality was celebrated today. The loan will co-finance Sofia’s multi-year investment programme of urban development projects, including the construction and rehabilitation of municipal roads, tramways, cycling and walking paths and other urban infrastructure within the scope of the Bulgarian capital’s current Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).
In particular, the loan will enable Sofia Municipality to expand the share of urban development projects focused on pedestrian mobility infrastructure and contributing to green objectives within the overall project scope.
This will improve the everyday lives of locals, including people with reduced mobility, and contribute to cleaner air.
EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova remarked, “The EIB is a longstanding partner of Sofia Municipality, financing priority public infrastructure investments. The Bank has supported a number of projects, including to develop the metro, rehabilitate the urban road network, re-equip the public transport fleet, and create integrated waste treatment facilities and other urban and social infrastructure. We also provide advisory services for project preparation and implementation. As the EU Climate Bank, we have always shown our support with a clear vision of the green and sustainable future that we all hold as an ideal.”
Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia, added, “We have created a special programme for the construction and renovation of sidewalks, which we aim to renew in all parts of Sofia. This is one of the most important investments in our neighbourhoods, and will enable us to multiply pavement repair efforts more than ten times over. Ultimately, we aim to make travelling short distances through the city more pleasant for all, as well as more convenient, comfortable, safe and accessible for mothers with strollers and people with disabilities. Encouraging pedestrian traffic is also important for improving air quality.”
The EIB has worked closely with Bulgaria since 1992 and has supported its economy with around €5.7 billion to date.
Bulgaria: EIB invests €10 million in new space scaleup EnduroSat
The financing supports EnduroSat’s development of software-defined NanoSatellites and its new Shared Satellite Service
The EIB support will also create highly skilled jobs in the European Union’s space sector, and have positive environmental benefits in orbit, indirectly favouring the reduction of space debris
First venture debt operation in Bulgaria under the European Guarantee Fund (EGF)
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the long-term lending institution of the European Union, and EnduroSat, a fast-growing Bulgarian company providing solutions for the global Space market, announced a venture debt financing agreement of up to €10 million. The financing is being offered under a newly available venture debt instrument backed by the European Guarantee Fund (EGF), which was set up by the EIB to support EU businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EIB investment will back EnduroSat’s growth and job creation to further develop the company’s innovative, high-performance and affordable NanoSatellites and space services for business, exploration, and science teams across the Globe. It will also support the expansion of EnduroSat’s disruptive Shared Satellite Service. This new concept democratises access to space data. It allows customers to lease the company’s satellites to deploy sensors and instruments instead of developing their own satellite fleets.
The Shared Satellite Service streamlines space operations by covering all aspects of the process — from payload (customer cargo) integration and launch all the way to data command and control via a simplified cloud-based user interface. Its goal is to help drive innovation at the final frontier by providing easy access to space to visionary entrepreneurs, scientists and technologists. This new access to space data will also have a positive environmental impact with fewer small satellite launches required, leading to reduced space debris.
EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova commented: “The first European Guarantee Fund venture debt signature with the Bulgarian scaleup EnduroSat is excellent news for the Bulgarian economy and Europe’s competitiveness as a whole. It promotes a new space industry segment that aims to democratise and improve access to space and related space technologies and applications for everyone in a way that respects the environment. As such, it will help boost jobs and innovation in a highly disruptive and cutting-edge sector that will define our future.”
EnduroSat’s Founder & CEO Raycho Raychev said: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The investment/financing will streamline our mission of empowering academia, businesses, and science teams across the globe to test and validate their technology in space. EnduroSat has been working hard to develop software-defined NanoSats, offering simple in-orbit operations and data handling. Our Shared Satellite Service radically simplifies the process of getting your payload to space in a significantly shorter time.”
Financing new space
The global space economy has been growing at nearly twice the rate of the broader economy (pre-COVID) and is undergoing considerable changes. Many new private companies are entering a market that has long been dominated by government-run entities. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), every €1 invested in the space sector returns an average of €6 to the economy, making the sector essential for growth, competitiveness and high-tech employment. Space technology in orbit and applications on Earth are relevant across a large number of industries, including maritime, aviation, agriculture, natural resource management, insurance, financial trading and logistics.
The European Union has flagship programmes like Copernicus and Galileo that provide Europe with autonomous space capabilities, and is also embracing the changes of the new space sector with various funding vehicles. The EIB Group provides direct venture financing for later-stage, fast-growing companies, and through the European Investment Fund (EIF) backs various venture funds to support European space startups at earlier development stages. With the direct financing of EnduroSat, the EIB adds a third New space company to its venture debt portfolio, following the financing of Spire Global and D-Orbit in 2020.
In addition to its financing, the EIB is supporting the development of a European new space sector through its Advisory Services, in collaboration with the European Commission. The services produced a market study on The future of the European space sector and initiated the EIB Space Finance Lab. The lab connects space companies and financiers, helping companies tap into EIB and other patient capital sources.
Bulgaria: EIB and ProCredit Bank Bulgaria expand support to small and medium-sized businesses and foster climate action
– This EUR 15m loan is the third EIB operation with ProCredit in Bulgaria
– 40% of the loan is dedicated to projects with a climate action component
The European Investment Bank (EIB) lends EUR 15m to ProCredit Bank Bulgaria to co-finance small and medium-scale investments in the country. 40% of the intermediated loans are dedicated to renewable energy, energy efficiency, low carbon transport and waste management projects.
Thanks to the EIB loan, Bulgarian companies with fewer than 3 000 employees will benefit from better access to long-term financing provided at favourable terms.
“Support to cohesion regions and the fight against climate change are strategic priorities of the EU bank,” said EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova. She continued: “The EIB, in cooperation with our well-established partner ProCredit Bank, will sustain employment in Bulgaria, strengthen the competitiveness of the private sector and support the fight against climate change. Our joint efforts will stimulate sustainable growth and investments in Bulgaria, fostering economic convergence, increasing the number of qualified jobs and ultimately improving the living conditions of European citizens.”
“ProCredit Bank is a pioneer in offering specialised green and energy efficiency loans, including financing for renewable energy generation, and has devoted significant efforts to encouraging investments of this kind. By doing this we have accumulated in-house expertise and experience, and have positioned ourselves as the bank of choice for green loans – among both businesses and providers of funds. The signing of today’s contract reflects the shared principles and goals of both institutions, as well as our joint commitment to promoting growth and employment by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises”, said Reni Peycheva, Member of the Management Board and Executive Director of ProCredit Bank (Bulgaria).
This is the third operation since the start of the EIB’s cooperation with ProCredit Bank in 2011. The EIB has already provided two intermediated loans to the bank, thereby helping to finance small and mid-sized businesses in Bulgaria.