Background & Opportunity
Small and mid-sized enterprises make up 99.2% of Moldovan and 99.97% of Ukrainian businesses, yet growth equity at the scale they need has been structurally absent — in Ukraine's case since well before the war. The shortfall is documented, persistent, and not a by-product of the current conflict.
€2B
Moldova's unmet MSME equity gap
IFC / World Bank CPSD, 2023
$29B
Ukraine's unmet SME financing gap per year
IOM / CSIS, 2024
2.3 / 5.0
Moldova's access-to-equity score — lowest among EU candidate and Eastern Partnership countries
OECD / EBRD SME Policy Index, 2024
0.025%
Ukrainian PE investment as a share of GDP before the war, though SMEs are 99.97% of businesses
CSIS, 2023
Development-finance-backed funds in the region deploy at €15M and above, or below €1M through venture capital. Nothing sits in between. Companies at €1–15M of revenue fall through the gap.
ODA grants
€0.01–0.5M
Too small for the capex and market-access needs of growth-stage companies.
Venture capital
€0.2–2M
Wrong profile — regional agrifood and manufacturing companies are established, not pre-revenue.
Commercial & concessional debt
€0.1–2M
Debt only, collateral-dependent, and capped well below growth-stage equity needs.
Existing private equity funds
€15–50M+
Too large — companies at €1–15M revenue sit below every existing fund's minimum ticket.
Our tier
€3–10M
Growth equity paired with governance, EU certification, market access and a defined exit path.
"Support programmes are designed for micro-enterprises, banks demand collateral we don't have, and we don't want debt — we want a partner who will help us with EU certification and market access." — what Moldovan companies tell us.
Why now
Moldova received candidate status in June 2022, opened accession negotiations in June 2024, and anchored the EU path in its constitution by referendum in October 2024. All 24 first-stage Reform & Growth Facility steps have been completed.
A €1.9B Reform & Growth Facility for Moldova runs to 2027 against 180 milestones, alongside a record €508M of EBRD deployment in 2025. Sovereign ratings from Moody's, S&P and Fitch are stable, each citing EU integration.
Reconstruction need is assessed at $588B, with 73–100% expected to come from private capital. The Ukraine Investment Framework had deployed €3.6B to the private sector by 2025.
Central and Eastern European precedent — Poland, Hungary, Romania — shows accession compressing risk premia and re-rating comparable businesses toward EU trading multiples over the accession cycle.
"This Growth Plan has the potential to double the Moldovan economy over the next decade."
Ursula von der Leyen, EU–Moldova Summit, July 2025