JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises) is an initiative of the European Investment Fund (EIF), launched in Bulgaria in 2010.
The initiative emerged after Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, at the very beginning of a new seven-year programming period (2007–2014), but the first years passed with delays in EU funds. When the government changed in 2009, the country had no established plan for managing structural funds effectively, and JEREMIE — already successfully tested in other countries — was offered as a ready-made solution for Bulgaria.
The idea behind the initiative was very innovative for its time: instead of traditional grants for business, financial instruments would be used — loans and equity investments — where the decision is made by a market player rather than an administrator, and where, upon success, the invested funds are returned and reinvested.
The main problem with grants is the absence of feedback between results and financing — the money is provided on a non-repayable basis and no real economic outcome is accounted for. Over time, this creates the so-called "grant lobby" — a business model oriented towards absorbing funds rather than achieving market success.
Financial instruments introduce a different logic: public money is treated like any other money — if it generates a return, that return goes back to the investor (in this case the public one) and is reinvested. This transforms the EIF into a so-called "public investor in private markets" — a public investor operating according to the rules of private capital.
The EIF, however, does not finance business directly. Its function is to structure financial instruments and to build the financial players themselves — funds, guarantee schemes and banking partnerships — which subsequently finance small businesses. The chain consists of public administration (the European Commission, the national government), followed by the EIF as a technical and market expert, and finally the financial intermediaries (banks, fund managers) who make the specific investment decisions.
JEREMIE Bulgaria started with EUR 200 million in 2010. In 2012, a further EUR 150 million was added to the initiative, as the operational programme on competitiveness was falling behind on the implementation of its grant schemes. The total resource thus reached EUR 350 million, initially directed primarily towards the credit market — the equity segment was still underdeveloped in Bulgaria at that time.
Over the years, the model demonstrated the power of recycling: the funds invested and recovered from loans and equity investments are reinvested, multiplying the real effect on the economy. To date, approximately EUR 1.6 billion has reached businesses through the initiative, supporting over 10,000 small enterprises. More than 500 innovative companies have received equity investments from funds that fifteen years ago did not exist at all.
JEREMIE can be compared to the Marshall Plan after the Second World War — a public resource building long-term economic infrastructure through reinvestment rather than one-off distribution. While the Marshall-Schuman fund has been operating for over 70–80 years, JEREMIE Bulgaria is only fifteen years old, but already demonstrates a similar logic of sustainability — its mandate has been extended successively (to 2020, then to 2025, and again by a further five years).
Between 2010 and 2015, the European Commission was open to exceptions and flexible interpretation of the regulations on financial instruments, as the concept itself was still in a pilot phase. After 2015, the discussion became politicised — financial instruments grew in popularity, and with that came increased regulation, which sometimes brought the new instruments back towards the logic of grants.
One of the positive features of the initiative is the status of recycled funds: they are no longer formally "EU funds" and are not subject to the same regulations, state aid rules and investment deadlines. This gives them greater flexibility — longer investment periods (4–5 years), the possibility of reserving capital for follow-on investments, and, unlike the Fund of Funds, the possibility of regional investments outside Bulgaria.
The first equity funds under JEREMIE appeared in 2011 — two accelerators and two venture capital funds: Eleven, LAUNCHub, NEVEC and Empower Capital (then Power Capital, today part of the Black Peak group). The logic was experimental — the EIF deliberately financed two parallel models (a more commercial accelerator versus a more traditional capital model) to determine which worked better in the Bulgarian environment, in which the European Commission at that time did not believe a market existed at all.
The results justified the bet. Eleven became the largest accelerator in Europe and was covered by the Financial Times. Power Capital (today Black Peak) fully returned capital to its investors from the first fund and continued with a second fund of EUR 126 million, and more recently a third fund reaching EUR 55 million. Black Peak's profile is a specialised private equity approach focused on operations and later-stage investments, while other funds in the ecosystem (such as Eleven and LAUNCHub) have developed from pure accelerators into more complex venture capital structures with attracted private capital.
At present, funds financed under JEREMIE alone have raised a total of EUR 434 million in capital, of which approximately EUR 150 million is JEREMIE resource — the rest is attracted private capital, proof of the multiplying effect of the model.
The next phase in the development of the ecosystem is the attraction of local institutional capital — first and foremost pension funds — as investors in alternative assets (private equity and venture capital). Unlike family offices, which offer greater flexibility, institutional investors bring long-term sustainability — commitments that remain stable regardless of short-term market turbulence.
What has been achieved over the past fifteen years shows that JEREMIE has already proven itself as a successful model — financial instruments have built a sustainable investment ecosystem in Bulgaria. This, however, is more of a foundation upon which even more substantial development is yet to come. With the planned steps for the development of JEREMIE, the ecosystem has the potential to enter a new phase of growth, building on what has been achieved so far.
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