Impactful financing

May 11, 2021

Our crowdfunding platform Oneplanetcrowd. recently raised EUR 1 million in growth financing from the European Investment Fund (EIF). Funding has been raised through the EU Program for Employment and Social Innovation and will be used to further develop the platform and achieve further growth. Read all about it below in the joint press release. And read the interview with our General Council Lisa Hees about this investment here.

Oneplanetcrowd raises EUR 1 million in growth financing from the European Investment Fund

- Crowdlending platform Oneplanetcrowd attracts EUR 1 million in growth funding from the European Investment Fund (EIF) for supporting social entrepreneurship.
- Funding is made possible by the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) Program of the European Union.

To further develop the platform and achieve further growth, Oneplanetcrowd has raised funding from the European Investment Fund (EIF) through the EU Program for Employment and Social Innovation. This is a favorable loan with a term of eight years. The required equity capital has been strengthened because all shareholders have converted their outstanding (convertible) loans into shares and existing Oneplanetcrowd crowd investors have bought additional depositary receipts for shares. After the issue of these shares, Oneplanetcrowd is well positioned to finance its further growth. The conversion of loans greatly increases solvency.

“We are proud to have the EIF on board. With their financial support, we can further strengthen our growth and invest in our business model for financing small sustainable SMEs. It also demonstrates the strong and pragmatic effort of the EIF (EU) to support the alternative finance sector, which is even more necessary in these difficult economic times due to the coronavirus ” Thus Coenraad de Vries, managing director of Oneplanetcrowd.

“At this difficult time, access to finance for the smallest companies in our economies is more important than ever. In addition to the health emergency, one of the main goals of the EIF is to support SMEs wherever possible in the face of the economic consequences of this crisis. ” Added Alain Godard, Chief Executive of the EIF, please.

Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, says: “Beyond traditional bank lending, Europe needs innovative forms of financing to meet the significant liquidity needs of SMEs and mid-caps. Oneplanetcrowd can bring together sustainable investors and social enterprises seeking financing, I am pleased that the EU can support this platform. ”

Investing in growth
Partly with this financing, further investments will be made in the quality of services in the coming years by, among other things:
• The improvement of the front-end and back-end IT systems
• Expanding the sales and marketing capacity.
• Offering new products such as bonds, shares and limited tradability.
• To meet strict regulatory requirements, as Oneplanetcrowd is one of the few platforms operating under MiFID II.

Oneplanetcrowd has received the capacity building investment funded by the European Union under the Employment and Social Innovation Program (EaSI). The EaSI program supports the social and employment policies of the European Union. The program falls directly under the responsibility of the European Commission and contributes to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy.