Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc , said Wednesday it will channel investment funds under the European Investment Fund (EIF) scheme, including 15 million dollars as loan capital to 1,000 small businesses in Europe and 10 million dollars. dollars as equity investments for 200 healthcare companies.
The fund is part of a $800 million initiative announced in March last year as an emergency response program to the Covid-19 pandemic . EIF is part of the European Investment Bank, which provides soft loans and equity investments to small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union.
In addition to Europe, Google is also working with the Inter-American Development Bank to allocate 8 million dollars to small companies in Latin America.
The same thing was done in collaboration with Kiva, an organization that provides crowdfunding loans, to help businesses in Africa, the Middle East and Indonesia. Google is setting up $26 million for the Kiva aid scheme.
Small Business Assistance for economic recovery
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March last year, Alphabet through Google.org had already disbursed $100 million in grants. Assistance is focused on areas where resources can have the greatest impact on health, science and economic recovery, and distance learning.
Millions of people have lost their jobs around the world as businesses have been forced to close due to the pandemic. According to the OECD Organization for Development Cooperation, the policy of restrictions and lockdowns is likely to have the most severe impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Many small and micro enterprises in developing and industrialized countries are run by women. That’s why Google says it has donated $5 million to the organization Common Future to provide capital and technical assistance to 2,000 women and small minority entrepreneurs in the United States. In addition, aid funds were also distributed in response to the crisis to more than 200,000 underserved SMEs in 32 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.