EUCLIDES will be launched in the first half of 2023 as an innovative impact investment fund that contributes to the fight against climate change and fits into a market that today wants a huge deployment of technologies with a positive impact. The EIF – whose central mission is to support micro and medium-sized businesses other than climate fund investments – is supporting EUCLIDES as a cornerstone investor. And in fact, this impact fund will mainly provide growth debt to SMEs specializing in innovative climate solutions across Europe.

Borrowers targeted by the fund are European innovative companies in climate tech with meaningful track-record and revenues, in high growth and strong demand context, looking for additional flexible financings to accelerate their development. The financed cleantech companies will contribute to the reduction of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by providing, amongst others, physical and/or digital solutions, developing clean transportation of people and goods, clean energy solutions, innovative process or disruptive technologies with low environmental impact.

The Fund will be committed to providing tailor-made debt instruments generally associated with return enhancers, such as warrants, in order to share the additional value provided by the financing and increase the return of the fund. For investors, EUCLIDES will offer regular returns and risk diversification through a portfolio of circa 40 SME financings, exposure to robust market drivers, geographical diversification, participation to up-side potential.

EUCLIDES is classified as an Article 9 fund under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) with a strong alignment to EU taxonomy. The totality of the financings will demonstrate strong decarbonization claims, illustrated by positive avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at end-user level measured through a transparent methodology. Avoided emissions will be measured by the difference between annual GHG emissions associated with an investee's product or service compared to a reference counterfactual scenario.

Rivage Investments is a leading actor in the financing of European infrastructures, that include operations for portfolios of renewable energy projects under development, and the commitment to funding corporates offering decarbonisation solutions. Rivage Investment has been chosen by the EIF in order to symbolize the adequacy between the sustainable investment objective pursued by the fund – aiming at financing entities involved in the fight against global warming, in the energy transition, and climate change mitigation – and the major European objectives of transition to a low-carbon economy. This investment and the underlying ones will be aligned to the EIF's criteria for Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability, which are in their turn adapted to the specific needs of private market and small enterprise on the base of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance.

Rivage Investment targets a first closing at 100mln euros, including the EIF 30mln euros commitment in the first semester of 2023 and a target size of EUCLIDES at 250mln euros.

About the SFDR

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation is a European regulation that aims at systematising the EU sustainable finance framework to improve transparency in the market for sustainable investment products, and counteract greenwashing phenomena by introducing mandatory information on the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) characteristics of investment products and how they impact the management process.

About InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term financing by mobilizing significant public and private funds to support a sustainable recovery. It helps generate additional investments in line with key European priorities, such as the European Green Deal, the digital transition and support for SMEs. The InvestEU programme brings together a multitude of EU financial tools to support investment by making project financing simpler, more efficient and more flexible.