European Investment Fund

European Investment Fund


Founded	1994.
Type	International financial institution
Location	Luxembourg
Area served	European Union, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Western Balkan, Moldova, Ukraine, Israel, other countries
Products	Guarantee products, Equity products, Inclusive finance instruments
Owner	EU member states
Chief Executive	Marjut Falkstedt
Deputy Chief Executive	Merete Clausen
Employees	700+
Website	www.eif.org

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The European Investment Fund (EIF), established in 1994, is a financial institution for the provision of risk finance to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), headquartered in Luxembourg. It is an EU body with the mandate to facilitate access to finance for European SMEs, by sharing or reducing the financial risk. The EIF is a part of the European Investment Bank Group and its task is to support the European Union public policy goals.

In 2024, the EIF channeled €14.4 billion of financing towards deeptech, life sciences, greentech, social impact funds, dual use defense technologies, and scale-up funds. Near to 43% of these investments (€6.1 billion) were green, and 45% went to regions in which economic development is below the EU average. In April 2025, Sifted reported that the EIF was “Europe’s biggest limited partner”, with “€143.7 billion in assets under management.”

It does not lend money to SMEs directly; rather it provides finance through financial intermediaries that include banks, alternative lenders, and equity funds. Its main operations are in the areas of venture capital, private equity, private debt, guaranteeing loan portfolios, and securitization. In 2024, the EIF placed more than €7 billion in equity investments and worked with 96 new financial intermediaries.

Its shareholders are: the European Investment Bank (59.78%); the European Union, represented by the European Commission (29.72%); and 38 financial institutions (10.5%). As of 1 January 2023, the Chief Executive is Marjut Falkstedt.

The EIF implemented the SME portion of the EU's European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), also known as the Juncker Plan. Launched in 2015, the EFSI aimed to improve employment and economic growth by mobilizing €315 billion investment in European infrastructure projects by mid-2018. Since 2021, the EIF and the EIB have had a key role in implementing InvestEU, which is the successor to Juncker's EFSI.

The EIF participated in the EU's COVID-19 crisis response via the €25 billion Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), launched in August 2020 to help SMEs through the crisis.

The EIF employs more than 700 people.