The Development Facility of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE DF) will support Armenia-based pre-seed venture capital firm SmartGateVC in implementing a new financing model for early-stage start-ups and research and development (R&D) companies.
The model is the first of its kind in the market, aimed at fostering innovation and knowledge creation in Armenia. The new financing model pioneers a recoverable grant system, whereby the recipients of the grants will have to return the grant amount when achieving certain solid milestones. This way the recovered amount will be used for similar grants in the future thus making the same money work for the start-up ecosystem in multiple cycles.
A total of four reimbursable grants totaling €100,000 will match SmartGateVC’s investment up to €25,000 for early-stage start-ups and up to €50,000 for research and development companies.
