Over €500 million euros applied for bridging finance for startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs

Techleap.nl

Since its opening on 29 April, more than a thousand startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs have applied for a Corona-OverbruggingsLening (COL) or the Tijdelijk Overbruggingskrediet Programma innovatieve Start en Scale ups (TOPSS). These companies together account for the employment of almost 12,000 FTEs. The companies apply for more than 500 million euros in total via one of the two facilities.
 

The need is high for start-ups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs.

The Cabinet initially allocated €100 million to the Corona-OververbruggingsLening (COL). More than 1,000 companies applied for €385 million via the COL in a single week. An amount that even exceeds the expectations of the Regional Development Agencies (ROMs) that implement this scheme.

Invest-NL has earmarked €100 million for the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme for innovative Start-ups and Scaleups (TOPSS). Invest-NL applies a lower limit of €2 million for TOPSS applications. In the first week, Invest-NL received 21 applications. The total financing requirement of these applications is over €130 million. Invest-NL has yet to assess the content of these applications and will, in case of a positive assessment, provide up to 50% of the funding.

Rinke Zonneveld (Director InnovationQuarter) on behalf of the ROMs: "Based on the research we had estimated that at least 350 million euros would be needed to help startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs through this crisis. The budget of 100 million was the first step in this direction. The fact that the requested amount for the COL is already almost 4 times as large indicates that the need for innovative NL is high. A rough estimate based on the initial assessments is that approximately 50-60% of the applications will be granted and that, thanks to the co-financing we are requesting from shareholders, approximately 35-40% of the total amount requested will be needed for the applications so far. That would mean that the €100 million is already "up" on the basis of the applications in the first week". 

Nils Beers, CEO Techleap.nl: "This huge demand confirms the image of size and urgency needed to keep these innovative companies alive. Through the central portal, we will continue to facilitate and monitor requests, the data from this will also be used to continuously evaluate whether the current measures are sufficient".

This article was originally published on techleap.nl