Access to Risk Finance: New tools for funding SME Innovation

The 1st Access to Risk Finance event took place in Istanbul on May 26th, 2016. It was a full day event with experts and key speakers coming from Turkey in H2020 project, TUBITAK, International Development Ireland (IDI), European Investment Bank (EIB), ACT Venture Capital and Borsa Istanbul.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this event was to increase awareness in SMEs and industry of new financial instruments available, including but not limited to all SME related H2020 initiatives: SME support programmes of the European Agency for SMEs (EASME) like SME Instrument, FTI, COSME. InnovFIN tools from EIB were also be presented along with alternative funding tools and opportunities from Venture Capitals and Borsa Istanbul.

Our objective was to provide a good understanding of alternative methods of funding particularly appropriate for SMEs and stress the importance of having an overall, innovation strategy and funding plan. A special session was dedicated to understanding the early stages funding process and making a company more “investable” or “fundable”.

Agenda & Presentations

Presentations from all speaker can be downloaded below:

1/ “Turkey in H2020” Project. A presentation of our project and available services by our Team Leader Dr. Aleksander Bakowski.

2/ Agenda & Horizon 2020 Grants dedicated to SMEs. Presentation of the Agenda, the structure of the event, the learning outcomes as well as an overview of H2020 dedicated to SMEs, presented by IPR, Legal & Financial Expert, Coordinator of the event, Odysseas Spyroglou. 

3/ H2020 SME Instrument. A unique opportunity for innovative SMEs, by Emre Yurttagül, SME & Access to Risk Finance National Contact Point | TUBITAK

4/ Fast Track to Innovation (FTI). A tool dedicated to mature ideas ready to reach the market, presented by Mustafa Büyüktere, the SME & Access to Risk Finance National Contact Point | TUBITAK

5/ EU Finance for Innovators: InnovFin Tools. The InnovFin tools presented by the representative of European Investment Bank in Ankara, Dr. Lara Tassan-Zanin

6/ The approach from a Venture Capital. The Managing Partner of ATC Venture Capital, Okan Kara, presented how VCs work and the workflow they follow to fund a business.

7/ Borsa Istanbul Private Market. The Director of Private Market of Borsa Istanbul, Dr. Reçep Bildik, presented this innovative new scheme that is specifically designed for small and innovative companies.

8/ Preparing for investment: demystifying the external fund raising process. Gerry O' Brien, Director of IDI projects and with long experience from Enterprise Ireland development agency, explained what is needed to prepare your business for investment and how an SME can create a Funding Strategy in order to improve its “investibility”

Photographs from the event are uploaded to our Flickr account. 

Downloadable Material