3 European lighthouse projects win the inaugural 2023 ELTI Awards

Medical Inventi SA (Poland), PILI (France) and the Social Finance Foundation (Ireland) received the in-augural ELTI Awards in their respective categories at ELTI’s ’10-year anniversary’ event in Madrid to-day. Made up of 32 National Promotional Banks and Institutions (NPBIs) throughout Europe, the Euro-pean Long-Term Investors Association (ELTI) marked its 10th year since its inception by organising an award ceremony for various projects funded by its members. The three winners were selected from more than 40 proposals presented by ELTI members, all of which presented outstanding ideas and en-trepreneurial approaches in the areas of Innovation, green and sustainable investments, and social impact. 

Mr. Maciej Maniecki, CEO of Medical Inventi SA (Poland) stated: “In cooperation with the Medical University of Lublin, we created a new and innovative bone substitute biocomposite called “FlexiOss® artificial bone”. This is a completely new generation of implant material for filling bone defects: It sup-ports the reconstruction of bone defects, significantly accelerating and facilitating the recovery pro-cess, which affects the patient's well-being. We are very honoured to be awarded by the association of our bank BGK. Due to their experienced financial support, the project could be financed successfully, and westayed focused in the scientific work.”

Jérémie Blache, CEO of PILI (France) commented: “With the ELTI Awards 2023, NPBIs priced the bio-based production of dyes and pigments. This helps to reduce the environmental footprint of the colour industry, thus meeting the challenges of the colour industry decarbonisation by drastically reducing the use of chemicals and fossil resources, particularly oil. Bpifrance helped us to finance this project” 

Brendan Whelan, CEO of the Social Finance Foundation, (Ireland) said: “We highly appreciate the fact that the award of public development banks goes beyond commercial dimensions. The needs of community organisations and social enterprises for loan funding, which has been difficult to obtain from mainstream financial institutions in Ireland, is our main target since our foundation in 2007. The Council of Europe Development Bank is one of our refinancing partners. Our clients and people in communities are benefiting from these preferred financing conditions.”

The newly elected ELTI President Dario Scannapieco added: “NPBIs are promoting a broad range of companies and projects. More than 30 ELTI members are happy to finance fascinating projects all over Europe. We provided more than 220 billion EUR in 2022 for SMEs, research & development, infrastruc-ture, municipalities, social housing and education. The winners of the 2023 ELTI awards are lighthouse projects in the areas of innovation, green and sustainable investments, and social impact. We were overwhelmed by more than 40 impressive proposals for the awards submitted by our members. Once again,  his underlines the added value of National Promotional Banks and Institutions for the European economy and for its people. Congratulations to the three winners!” 

About Social Finance Foundation

The Social Finance Foundation was established in 2007 by the Government of Ireland to address the needs of the community organisations and social enterprises for loan funding which Is difficult to ob-tain from mainstream financial institutions. Acting as a ‘wholesaler’, it provides funding to its lending partners: Clann Credo and Community Finance Ireland. Its motto is: ‘Finance for Social Good’.

Social Finance Ireland has an operating model which is unique to Ireland. It combines the State, acting through the Government and Department of Finance; the Private Sector through the representatives of the participating banks (AIB, Bank of Ireland, permanent tsb, Ulster Bank); the Third Sector through the Social Lending Organisations (Clann Credo and Community Finance Ireland); and the EU through the support of the European Investment Fund and the Council of Europe Development Bank. It is this ex-tensive and interdependent combination of support that has enabled the Foundation and its subsidiary Microfinance Ireland to deliver on its mission to facilitate social development through utilising finance and financial expertise. 

Its mission is threefold: Firstly, to generate a strong social impact by funding, through our lending part-ners, creditworthy projects with loan finance; Secondly, to support micro-enterprises by providing loan finance where such is difficult to obtain from mainstream sources; Finally, by working collaboratively, to undertake research and deliver initiatives which promote social good, together with the Irish Gov-ernment and the Irish Banking Industry as our sponsors.

Media contact: Ronan Headon<rheadon@sff.ie, +353 862546624
https://sff.ie/

About Medical Inventi SA

The Company, Medical Inventi SA, was established as an initiative of the academic community of the Medical University of Lublin and private capital in order to commercialise scientific research, imple-mented for the purposes of prevention and protection of human health.
An achievement of the research team was the arrangement of the bone-replacement biomaterial, which is the original solution in the field of modern implant preparations of the III generation with pay-ing special attention to the composition which is bio-compatible with the bone tissue, bioactivity, the influence on the bone tissue regeneration and supporting the bone reconstruction process and the handiness and efficiency of the surgery. Last year’s performer surgeries utilising this new material con-cerned the filling of dental alveoluses, fistulas’ treatment and the filling of bone defects which ap-peared as a result of limbs’ injuries. The implemented biomaterial revealed many positive effects in-cluding: non-toxicity, a gradual biodegradability, and a progressing bone reconstruction, thus eliminat-ing the necessity of further surgeries when removing implants.

Media contact: Aleksandra Machowska +48 881 750 883 aleksan-dra.machowska@medicalinventi.pl https://medicalinventi.pl/en/

About Pili

Today, 99% of dye colouring are produced with fossil resources. PILI’s mission is to produce sustaina-ble dyes and pigments to reduce the environmental footprint of the colour industry. Pili uses hybrid processes combining industrial fermentation and green chemistry to generate high-performance col-our ranges. They target the most polluting applications: textiles, inks, polymers, paints & coatings. We are scaling the production of biobased indigo for textile and develop biobased pigments for the Ink, Paint & coatings and Plastics industries.

Media contact:  Julie LACONDEMINE PILI  julie.lacondemine@pili.bio 

About ELTI

32 Members of the European Association of Long-Term Investors (ELTI) a.i.s.b.l., Brussels, Belgium represent a European-wide network of National Promotional Banks and Institutions. The association offers financial solutions tailored to the specific needs of their respective country and economy. Multi-lateral financial institutions complement the activities at national level with specific cross-border solu-tions or investments with a European impact. Following the specific public missions of each ELTI mem-ber, the business models of each institution differs from country to country including their different products and approaches. This is the same for multilateral ELTI members. The 32 ELTI members are major long-term investors and represented a combined balance sheet total of 2.7 trillion as well as annual financing commitments of more than 220 billion EUR in 2022. 

Media contact: Alexander Zammit zammit@eltia.eu, +32 487 907 510