As of the 29th of April 2020, companies can apply for a special bridging loan, the so-called Corona-Oververbruggingslening (COL), via an online portal built by Techleap.nl, the ROMs and Invest-NL. Check it out here: https://www.techleap.nl/content/bridgefinancing-portal/
This bridging loan program was announced by the government earlier this month to the amount of EUR 100 million for all non-bank funded companies: startups, scaleups and innovative SMEs by the government. The COL was developed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, in close cooperation with Techleap.nl, the ROMs and Invest-NL. This scheme is executed by the Regional Development Agencies (ROMs) at the request of the government.
Corona bridging loan
The loans to be granted by the ROMs vary between €50,000 and €2 million. For amounts above €250,000, 25% co-financing is expected from the shareholders or other investors. An uniform interest rate of 3% is applied. The ROMs aim to process the assessments of applications below €500,000 within four to nine working days. For applications above €500,000, the aim is to reach a final decision within three working weeks. More information about criteria and applications can be found on www.rom-nederland.nl/corona-overbruggingslening.
Office Hour
This Tuesday, April 28th at 4 pm, State Secretary Mona Keijzer of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) and Special Envoy of Techleap.nl Constantijn van Oranje will be guests in a special online Office Hour by Techleap.nl. During this webinar they will tell more about the scheme and startups and scale-ups can ask related questions. Sign up for this webinar here.
Additional measures for startups and scale-ups
Startups and scaleups are suffering major consequences from the corona crisis: an inventory by Techleap.nl shows that 55% of companies see demand disappear due to the disappearance of existing customers or the absence of new customers. Raising the necessary new funding is a problem for this group too under the current circumstances. This is because startups, scaleups and other non-bank companies are unable to make use, or can make only limited use, of the measures previously announced by the government aimed at companies financed with loan capital.
This article was originally published on techleap.nl