Smart Fund

The Fund provides support to companies and SMEs insofar as it provides them with strategic financing to carry out their investments under conditions that are more flexible than ordinary financing in terms of maturity, repayment of the principal, etc., and adapting to the cash generation of the projects. The Fund works as a separate initiative from the ordinary granting of loans and takes into account the quantitative and qualitative factors of projects, prioritising those that promote sustainability, digitisation, job creation or innovation.

This is another of the main advantages of the Fund. In contrast to other financing channels already on the market such as Private Equity, funding rounds for start-ups or capital increases, the Fund allows entrepreneurs to finance the growth of their businesses without having to give up management capacity, which will continue to be fully under their control. And in turn they will be able to count on an entity like Banco Santander to support them and offer them their full range of financial and non-financial services.

The Fund is aimed specifically at SMEs, or somewhat larger companies with a turnover of €100 million, that want to develop projects that promote sustainability, digitisation, innovation or job creation. The philosophy of the Fund is to support companies in all their growth phases, from the initial post-startup phases (turnover up to €3 million) in which the objective is growth in turnover (Smart Impulse), moving on to the next stage (turnover between €3 million and €100 million) where the objective is the consolidation of operating profit (Smart Growth), up to a phase (turnover between €10 million and €100 million) focused on increasing profitability (Smart Progress).

The financing will be structured according to the cash generation capacity of the projects and the repayment capacity will be assessed based on the business plan forecasts. In addition to the analysis of the projects based on financial criteria, other qualitative criteria of the projects are taken into account, with particular emphasis on evaluating their contribution to sustainability, innovation, digitisation or job creation. Financing will be mainly evaluated considering the repayment capacity of the projects themselves and additional guarantees will be required only when necessary.