Banco Português de Fomento

Funds Banco Português de Fomento, Portugal's development bank offering financing and support for expanding firms.

Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) is Portugal's national promotional and development bank, established in 2020 through the merger of IFD, SPGM, and PME Investimentos. It deploys guarantees, loans, equity, fund-of-funds instruments, and a limited set of non-repayable grants — primarily to SMEs and mid-caps across Portugal.

BPF's primary role is financial intermediary: most products are state-backed loan guarantees or capitalisation instruments distributed via commercial banks and Mutual Guarantee Societies (SGM). Pure non-repayable grants (subvenções) represent a minority of activity and are concentrated in the IFIC programme under PRR Componente C5, managed jointly with the Estrutura de Missão Recuperar Portugal (EMRP) via the SIGA-BF portal (recuperarportugal.gov.pt).

BPF is Portugal's only certified EU InvestEU Implementing Partner (of 16 across the EU), having signed a €210M EU guarantee in June 2024 unlocking over €3.6B in financing capacity. It also manages PRR-funded capitalisation funds (FdCR, FCEA) and acts as co-investor in VC and deep-tech programmes.