Largest Vega fund yet will finance business projects with up to 240,000 euros
UT Vega fund is bigger than ever this year. The funding facility for the development of knowledge-intensive business projects has with the support of Enterprise Estonia and Swedbank become a part of the support system of Estonian innovation. The total size of the fund has more than doubled and the applying system is more flexible.
According to the Project Manager of Vega fund and Head of UT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Andres Kuusik, previous application rounds have shown that the support from Vega fund encourages teams to think big and also to launch new knowledge-based businesses which support economic development.
The total amount of the fund this time is 80,000 euros. It is possible to apply for a 5,000 euro start-up support or a development voucher support of up to 10,000 euros which the applicant can use as a part of self-financing when applying for the development voucher from Enterprise Estonia. This is accompanied by a bridge financing product developed specifically by Swedbank which enables the applicant to receive up to 30,000 euros of support to implement their innovation activities.
“Many smaller enterprises have not been able to apply for the development voucher because the applicant needs to have 30,000 euros of their own before that: 10,000 euros for self-financing and 20,000 euros for making expenses which will later be compensated by Enterprise Estonia’s development voucher. Vega fund resolves this problem so that the fund gives up to 10,000 euros to cover self-financing and, in addition, Swedbank grants a loan in the sum of 20,000 euros which can later be written off with the development voucher of Enterprise Estonia. Therefore, we provide the winners of the Vega fund competition the opportunity to develop their knowledge-intensive business project to the value of 30,000 euros without being in debt,” described Kuusik.
Teams of students and researchers from all fields are invited to participate. It needs to be taken into account that for the start-up support a fourth of the team must be related to UT. When applying for the development voucher, relation to the university is not important. All knowledge-intensive projects which have a broad business potential are welcome.
The application for the knowledge-based idea must be submitted at vega.ut.ee by 1 November 2016. The final round takes place on sTARTUp Day on 9 December at the Estonian National Museum where the winners are also announced.
Vega fund is a funding facility for knowledge-intensive business projects created by UT which receives financial contributions from UT and the Harry and Reba Huge Foundation. The Vega fund support is given out by UT Idea Lab.
Read more about the Vega fund and submit your application at the Vega fund website.
Additional information
Andres Kuusik
Project Manager of the Vega fund, Head of UT Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
+372 737 4817
andres.kuusik [ät] ut.ee