Microfinance & the start-up sector: Romania visit || Read our new case studies!
In early October, MFC staff visited Romania to meet with a range of stakeholders (including MFC members Vitas and GoodBee) to discuss how the microfinance sector currently supports start-up businesses, what challenges the sector faces in that work and the opportunities to expand that support in future.
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ong key issues and ideas we heard was the fact that 1) the majority of start-ups require a combination of financial but non-financial services, and 2) most financial products available on the market are inaccessible to start-ups due to collateral or co-financing requirements. Possible solutions include a special guarantee fund for MFIs, which can leverage their close relationships with clients and deep knowledge the local marketplace to successfully deliver unsecured loans to local start-ups. Based on the visit in Romania, as well as similar visits to Bulgaria and Hungary, we conducted a webinar to present our initial research findings.
Supporting “generation start-up”: Opportunities for Romanian MFIs
This case note presents our initial research findings and analysis on the start-up enterprise landscape in Europe (in particular: Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria) This initial exploratory research was designed to identify current good practice among microfinance service providers serving start-ups; understand the future potential role of microfinance vis-a-vis start-ups; and propose concrete and practical steps to bring about more support for start-ups.
Supporting “generation start-up”: Opportunities for Hungarian MFIs
This case note presents our initial research findings and analysis on the start-up enterprise landscape in Europe (in particular:Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria). This initial exploratory research was designed to identify current good practice among microfinance service providers serving start-ups; understand the future potential role of microfinance vis-a-vis start-ups; and propose concrete and practical steps to bring about more support for start-ups. This project is being implemented within the four-year Framework Partnership Agreement of MFC and the European Commission within the EaSI Programme. MFC plans to continue the research in additional countries of in Eastern and Western Europe in 2017.