The second edition of SME Gijón Invest It has been launched by Gijón Impulsa to facilitate the generation, development and consolidation of business initiatives and finance projects and companies.
The fund is now fully operational and has a purely municipal endowment of five million euros, which will be managed by TORSA Capital. This entity will be in charge, in turn, of analyzing the projects likely to participate in it.
Fund resources will be used to finance technology-based business projects, promoting R+D+i activities. Specifically, this financing will go to companies that have their activity framed within the strategic axes of the Pact Gijón Transforms; that is, those entities dedicated to health, education, tourism, biotech, software, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and digitization.
Three stages
On the other hand, investment aid will vary depending on the phase of business life in which the company is located, ranging from 50,000 euros in initial stages, to 500,000 euros in expansion phases. In this sense, the Fund is designed to invest in the following stages:
- seed phase. Made up of those companies in early stages with products in development prior to going to market. This phase is when the business model is definitively validated.
- startup. It includes the start-up of newly constituted companies.
- Early stage. Also called early phase, it is one in which there are companies in the growth phase that prove traction in the market.
- Expansion. This phase includes companies that are in mature stages and that are in the process of internationalization or inorganic growth based on acquisitions.
The first edition of the fund had an invested capital of five million euros that was used to support a total of 14 companies and create nearly 300 new jobs.
Among the many companies that have benefited from participating in this fund and that highlight the importance of Gijón Impulsa for the development of their projects, is Efibat, a company dedicated to the design, manufacture and distribution of solutions aimed at energy efficiency, quality of energy and energy saving. Its general director, Cipriano Fernández, assures that «You have to have a very financial mentality when considering the entry of an investment fund into the company; we must know how to give up part of the property” and remarks that “our experience with Gijón Impulsa has been very positive”.
