The Euro Nordic Funding Alliance (ENFA) organised a small but intense event October 14-15 in Stockholm for Blended Finance.
They are dedicated to empowering growth through strategic funding solutions that can facilitate access to public funding for startups, SMEs, and associations across Europe and beyond.
They work with collaborative alliances and expertise in application writing, consortium building, project management, and innovative AI tools, and aim to foster sustainable development and success for our members and partners.
Blended finance involves grants from dozens of European public bodies and is a horrible maze of bureaucracy as well as an even more complex web of private foundations and family offices. It also involves funding for start-ups and innovations from diverse sources government entities like, TESI, Vinnova, Innovationsfonden and SINTEF, just to mention the main large entities, as well as dozens if not thousands of private Business Angels, VCs, private Equity funds, and family offices, pension funds and trade venture bodies.
That ENFA managed to arrange this was an achievement that few others have pulled of so successfully. They attracted Slush’s counterparts from Swedish and Danish event organisers, TechArena and TechBBQ – sadly SLUSH was busy arranging their own party and missed valuable insights from this event!
So on October 14th and 15th, 2024, we saw some 200 impact-driven companies and individuals from across the Nordics, Europe, and beyond gathered in Stockholm to exchange knowledge, network, and concepts and develop projects and partnerships for 2025 grant applications.
We saw that attendees need advice on the pitfalls of seeking grants and what to expect in terms of results. It appears most applications get rejected because conditions are not met, even when using experienced professionals to draft applications!
Smaller events like this mean much more efficient networking – it is easier to meet and talk without interruptions of cacophonic noise from crowds in darkly lit rooms. Berns in Stockholm, the venue, is an ideal meeting place for such a well-planned, intimate event.
Our take at forumNordicon was positive – we met with more than a dozen new potential partners.
