This study, carried out under the Innovfin Advisory mandate, reviews the access-to-finance conditions for Bio-based Industries (BBI) and the Blue Economy (BE) and proposes potential solutions that could catalyse investments into the sector.
The Bioeconomy is a key contributor to Europe’s growth, offering substantial opportunities for innovation and jobs, and at the same time supporting the EU’s transition to a Circular Economy and helping to address major societal challenges, such as greening the economy and addressing climate change.
The study finds that projects and companies active in the Bioeconomy face issues accessing private capital, with the main funding gaps appearing in (i) BBI and BE projects scaling up from pilot to demonstration plants and (ii) particularly in BBI, moving from demonstration to flagship/first-of-a-kind (FOAK) and industrial-scale projects.
The study puts forth a number of recommendations to address these funding gaps, among which is the development of a new dedicated risk-sharing instrument addressing the specific needs of project promoters in this sector. The set-up of such an investment platform is currently being considered for approval by the European Investment Bank and the European Commission as part of the new InnovFin programme and shall benefit from continued Innovfin Advisory support during its implementation.
The study was carried out by InnovFin Advisory.