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The project consists in a quasi-equity investment in Safeheal, a medical technology company based in France aiming to bring to market a solution to make colorectal cancer surgery more efficient and safer for patients.
The investment will finance the company's research, development and innovation (RDI) expenses as well as regulatory activities.
The Operation contributes to the InvestEU objective of research, development and innovation. The purpose of the loan is to provide direct, equity-type financing under EIB's Venture Debt Instrument to support research, development and innovation activities of the innovative company 'SafeHeal', a medical technology company based in France. The financing of this project addresses the failure in financial markets for RDI, arising from limited access to commensurate financing as a result of factors such as information asymmetries, misalignment of incentives, etc. The Company focuses on the development of innovative solutions to improve colorectal cancer surgeries by making them less intrusive to patients. By creating knowledge externalities, the project is expected to provide significant socio-economic benefits, will strengthen France and Europe's position in the field of advanced therapies, and it will help to create and retain skilled staff engaged in the Company's RDI activities. Thanks to the support of InvestEU, the EIB may provide long term financing in the form of venture debt to a highly innovative but high-risk early-stage company with no access to commercial debt. By contributing to extending the cash runway and therefore to de-risking the development plan of the company, the innovative EIB financing is expected to crowd-in third party investors (such as Venture Capitals, Strategic Investors, Private Equity players, etc.) and allow the company to accelerate its development and forming strategic alliances. The project would not have been carried out (to the same extent) by the EIB without the InvestEU support.
The promoter's investments concern RDI activities that are expected to be carried out in existing facilities already authorised for the same purpose and would therefore not require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) under Directive 2011/92/EU. Full environmental details will be verified during appraisal.
The Promoter is a private company, not operating in the utilities sector and does not have the status of a contracting authority; thus the project is not covered by the EU directives on procurement. However, the Promoter's procurement procedures are expected to be in line with EIB guidelines for private sector projects. The Bank's services will verify details during the project due diligence.