Financing the digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Группа авторов

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       Table of contents

       Foreword by Lilyana Pavlova

       Foreword by Roberto Viola

       Executive summary

       Context and study approach

       Snapshot of the status of digitalisation in Europe

       Key findings

       Recommendations

       Recommendations focused on supporting the ecosystem

       Recommendations focused on access to finance

       1.Context and study approach

       1.1Context

       1.2Approach

       1.3Methodology

       2.Snapshot of the status of digitalisation in Europe

       2.1Trends of digitalisation in Europe and expected growth

       2.2The digital profile of small and medium-sized enterprises: Digital adopters and digital natives

       2.3Ecosystem and enablers for innovation and digitalisation

       2.4Ecosystem and enablers for innovation and digitalisation: Overview of national and European programmes

       2.5Selected examples of digitalisation programmes worldwide

       3.Key findings

       3.1Finding 1: Digital innovation hubs are critical enablers with strong potential to strengthen their offerings

       3.2Finding 2: Public funding is dominant in digital innovation hubs, but new financing models are emerging

       3.3Finding 3: Perceived complexity and low visibility limit demand for funding from public digitalisation programmes

       3.4Finding 4: A key barrier to digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (different manifestation for natives versus adopters) is the lack of knowledge

       3.5Finding 5: Financing of digital projects is limited by the knowledge gap of banks

       4.Recommendations

       4.1Recommendation 1: Strengthen digital innovation hubs’ reach and role in helping small and medium-sized enterprises to access financing support

       4.2Recommendation 2: Diversify funding sources where possible and support digital innovation hubs to develop more commercially-oriented business models

       4.3Recommendation 3: Develop a central platform to drive awareness and ambition

       4.4Recommendation 4: Develop a voucher scheme to provide technical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises and a marketplace to facilitate match-making

       4.5Recommendation 5: Explore the development of dedicated financial instruments to support digitalisation

       4.6Recommendation 6: Consider developing dedicated equity instruments and/or higher risk-absorption debt products for growth capital to support disruptive digital technologies

       4.7Recommendation 7: Further investigate opportunities for dedicated financial instruments and dedicated advisory services for the CESEE region

       List of figures

       List of tables

       About the European Investment Bank

      The European Investment Bank is the world’s biggest multilateral lender. The only bank owned by and representing the interests of the EU countries, the EIB finances Europe’s economic growth. Over six decades the Bank has backed start-ups like Skype and massive schemes like the Øresund Bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. Headquartered in Luxembourg, the EIB Group includes the European Investment Fund, a specialist financer of small and medium-sized enterprises.

       Financing the digitalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises

      The enabling role of digital innovation hubs

       Prepared for:

       The European Commission (DG Connect and DG RTD)

       By:

       Innovation Finance Advisory, European Investment Bank

       Authors: Alberto Casorati, Arnold Verbeek

       Supervisor: Shiva Dustdar

       Contributions from Po Wen Liu, Maria Lundqvist (Project Directorate, European Investment Bank), Luuk Borg, Bjorn-Soren Gigler, Yves Paindaveine (DG Connect, European Commission)

       This report was produced with funding from the European Union, through the European Investment Advisory Hub

       Contact: [email protected]

       Consultancy support: Gartner