UniCredit and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have signed a new InvestEU guarantee agreement to significantly scale up support for small and medium-sized businesses across Central and Eastern Europe. The €445 million guarantee will unlock up to €890 million in additional financing for SMEs in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia, the EIF announced at the FT CEE Forum in Vienna.
The new guarantee increases and extends the InvestEU uncapped guarantee umbrella launched in 2023, making it one of the EIF’s largest InvestEU transactions. Available until the end of 2027, the facility will focus primarily on sustainability and innovation-driven projects. It will continue offering SMEs improved financing conditions, including more competitive pricing, longer maturities, and reduced collateral requirements.
“This transaction demonstrates how InvestEU can be deployed at scale to deliver tangible impact for Europe’s Small and Mid-sized Enterprises,” said EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt. “By significantly expanding our partnership with UniCredit, we are supporting thousands of businesses in Central and Eastern Europe as they invest in sustainability, innovation and digital transformation.”
The strong use of the previous guarantee confirms both demand and effectiveness of this approach, she added.
Teodora Petkova, Head of UniCredit for Central and Eastern Europe, said SMEs in the region employ over 65 percent of people and deliver more than 55 percent of economic value, but some of their ambitions still outpace their access to affordable finance. “By extending our InvestEU partnership with EIF, we are increasing lending volumes and providing tangible benefits: better terms, longer horizons, and now access to capital markets through minibonds,” she said. This way entrepreneurs with good ideas can invest, innovate, and scale faster with fewer constraints.
The extended agreement introduces minibonds as an eligible financing instrument, supporting SMEs’ access to debt capital markets and diversifying funding sources beyond traditional bank lending. The announcement came at the FT CEE Forum in Vienna, which gathered over 2,000 delegates from 54 countries, including political leaders, investors, policymakers, and business executives shaping Central and Eastern Europe’s future.
