Luxembourg/Stockholm, 19 March 2025: Nordic, German and Dutch tech companies will gain access to more than €43 million in growth financing through a new agreement between the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Gilion AB, an expert in start-up financing. The Nordic focus covers businesses primarily in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

The accord involves EIF guarantees for Sweden-based Gilion, formerly known as Ark Kapital, that provides loans to high-growth companies in the field of software as a service (SaaS). The SaaS domain includes cloud-based services where providers offer application software to customers online, managing both hardware and software resources, typically via subscription.

The backing by the EIF, which is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, will enable Gilion to offer reduced interest rates and other favourable lending terms to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as small Mid-Caps in the SaaS field. Mid-Caps are businesses ranked in size between SMEs and corporations.

“Ensuring access to finance for innovative SMEs and Mid-Caps is key to strengthening Europe’s position as a global leader in digitalisation,” said EIB Group Vice-President Thomas Östros. “This agreement will provide tech companies with the resources they need to scale up, create jobs and contribute to Europe’s digital economy.”

The SaaS sector is one of the fastest-growing segments of Europe’s digital economy, driven by strong demand for technological innovation. Nonetheless, this is a market that remains underserved by the commercial banking sector.

By combining EIF guarantees with Gilion’s expertise in tech financing, the new agreement will help bridge a funding gap for high-growth SaaS companies, equipping them with the financing needed to scale their businesses, expand internationally and accelerate digital advances.

“Funding high-growth companies is an important, but difficult, mission,” said Gilion co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Axel Bruzelius. “This guarantee gives us a huge building block in accomplishing this mission. I think everyone can agree that now is the time to strengthen the European funding infrastructure and, with this support, we will be able to scale faster in our markets with acceptable terms for both us and the entrepreneurs.”

The initiative is supported by the InvestEU programme, which aims to mobilise more than €372 billion in additional investments between 2021 and 2027 for EU policy priorities including digital and innovation.

Founded in 2021 in Stockholm, Gilion provides growth financing to tech SMEs particularly in the SaaS sector. Since 2022, Gilion has expanded into Denmark, Finland and Germany. This new guarantee deal builds on a previous EIF guarantee to Gilion in 2023, which amounted to €146 million.

Background

EIF

The EIF is part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. It supports Europe’s SMEs by improving their access to finance through a wide range of selected financial intermediaries. The EIF designs, promotes and implements equity and debt financing instruments targeting SMEs. In this role, the EIF fosters European Union objectives in support of entrepreneurship, growth, innovation, research and development, the green and digital transitions and employment.

InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the EU with crucial long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable economy. It helps generate additional investments in line with EU policy priorities, such as the European Green Deal, the digital transition and support for small and medium-sized enterprises. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners who invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. This guarantee increases their risk-bearing capacity, thus mobilising at least €372 billion in additional investment.

Gilion

The Gilion platform changes the growth experiences for founders – providing access to groundbreaking growth loans and frontier growth analytics products. Gilion is now live in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK and Germany (subsidiary). Gilion was originally founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneur Oliver Hildebrandt, veteran banker Axel Bruzelius, Spotify's former VP of Analytics, and former EQT Ventures founding partner Henrik Landgren.