As part of the EU’s Creative Europe programme, the European Investment Fund has signed agreements with Belgian finance providers PMV and ST’ART. The goal of the agreement is to target Belgian SME’s in currently underserved, perceived to be high-risk sub-sectors, like game development, with EUR 25 million of loans over three years.
Both service providers were already investing in the cultural and creative industries, but this agreement will allow them to widen their financing options. This implies it might get easier for Belgian game studios to secure initial funding, which hopefully will result in a leverage to explore more varied financing options.
For those of you who haven’t heard about either financing institute, here’s a quick introduction to what might be your next financing partner.
- PMV is an independent ‘do and dare’ investment company that is shaping the future of the Flemish economy. They invest in all kinds of promising ventures, but since 2007 held a special interest for the cultural and creative industries. Over the last ten years, PMV has invested over EUR 45 million in creative enterprises, half of that through different loan options.
- ST’ART is exclusively active in the cultural and creative sectors in Brussels and Wallonia, and already invested over EUR 10 million in enterprises in this sector. The agreement is a unique opportunity to boost their investments and diversify their loan options.
It’s worth noting that this initiative doesn’t come at the cost of the Creative Europe Media grants for game development, that will remain in place until the end of the current Creative Media programma in 2020.
We applaud the efforts of the EU to throw the cultural and creative sectors another lifeline and sincerely hope that the Belgian games industry will make use of this opportunity to kick off more projects while keeping their studio in good financial health.