Discover how Banco Santander’s €100 million venture loan fund with Inveready Asset Management provides flexible funding for Spanish businesses.
A $100 million venture debt fund is being launched by Banco Santander, one of Spain’s biggest banks, to support the nation’s start-ups. Additionally, a comprehensive set of goods and services for creative, scalable start-ups and businesses with expansion potential are being introduced.
Santander is to make a €67 million contribution to the fund, which will be established in conjunction with Inveready Asset Management. It will become the largest venture debt fund in Spain when the remaining €33 million is contributed by Inveready and other investors.
The fund will be available to high-growth, capital-efficient digital companies who have already completed at least one round of funding and are expected to meet a particular profit criterion in the medium term. To fund growth flexibly and reduce share dilution, financing will vary from €500,000 to €5 million.
In order to obtain access to 7,000 entrepreneurs, the bank also wants to negotiate cooperative agreements with important agents, associations, innovation centers, incubators, and investors. In the end, Banco Santander wants to considerably promote business development in order to strengthen Spain’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
At its 26 Work Cafés, which are collaborative places where customers and non-customers may work, hold meetings, go to events, and get advise from startup experts, Santander will also provide teams of experienced managers.
SME corporate services are being improved through Santander Growth, which offers the same global capabilities and investment banking guidance as large companies, with teams of local experts in all markets and artificial intelligence tools to help them make growth-related decisions.
Startups with limited collateral but cash and financial backing can acquire the bank’s personalised credit lines in the “seed” and “early” stages. The deal also covers business account opening, online banking on the website and mobile app, direct debits, remittances, and transfers.
“A pioneer in assisting businesses”
Santander Espaa’s CEO, ngel Rivera, said about the significance of the project: “We’re thrilled with the launch of this proposition for businesses. A variety of tools will be available to entrepreneurs to aid in their growth, which will definitely have a favorable effect on Spain’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“With initiatives like these and Santander Growth, we’re reaffirming our position as a leader in providing businesses with the most comprehensive financial and non-financial proposition in the market, regardless of size or stage in their life cycle,” said Santander Growth.
Santander will also have key personalities in central services to oversee the startup teams at its 152 enterprise banking locations as well as its main entrepreneurship hubs in Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Valencia, and Bilbao.
Additionally, the firms have the option of joining Santander X, a global social impact program for entrepreneurs run by Banco Santander. Santander X supports more than 1,000 initiatives in Spain each year by providing free services to consumers and non-customers, from the early stages of brainstorming and market launch through development and worldwide expansion.
Additionally, businesses can use the online tool Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, which offers free access to technological resources and professional guidance on product launches while supporting entrepreneurs and startups at all phases of development.
