Coronavirus survival funding for Finnish SMEs

A summary on the funding available for Finnish companies in the exceptional circumstances caused by the coronavirus. This is a quick and rough translation of the good Finnish summary at pienyrittajat.fi.

This will be updated as new information comes in.

Last updated 27.4.2020.

1. Unemployment benefit for entrepreneurs

If the entrepreneur’s salary has fallen below €1090/month, they’re eligible for unemployment benefit of approx. €700/month. Both amounts are pre-tax. This grant is handled by TE Office and can be combined with other ones.

Apply

Information in English (MEAE / TEM)

2. Company grants

2.1. SMEs (6-250 employees)

Companies with 6-250 employees can apply for support from Business Finland.

Apply

2.2. Small companies
(1-5 employees)

Companies with 1-5 employees can apply for support from their local ELY Centre.

Apply

2.3. Sole entrepreneurs

Sole entrepreneurs can apply for a €2,000 support from their municipality (city, town). They have to be able to show a significant downturn in their financial standing due to the coronavirus, which generally means at least a 30% decrease in turnover from 16.3.2020. The grant can be applied for expenses occurred during 1.3.-31.8.2020 and can be applied for until 30.9.2020.

Companies that have been in financial difficulties already before that time are not eligible. Neither are companies with unpaid taxes until they have an accepted payment plan. The tax situation needs to be proven by a tax debt certificate from Tax Administration that can be at most 3 months old.

This support applies for all entrepreneurs who do not employ others. Freelancers are eligible for this support.

This support can be applied to in combination to the unemployment benefit. This one is not for salary-like expenses, unemployment benefit is.

Apply from your municipality based on your registered home municipality according to the BIS (YTJ) registry. Here are links to Helsinki and Espoo applications. For other municipalities, you’ll typically find the information on the front page of their website.

Information in English

3. Loans

Finnvera offers loan guarantees for the corona situation with more flexible criteria than usual.

Apply

4. Investments

Finnish Industry Investment (FII / Tesi) offers investments for large and medium-sized enterprises affected by coronavirus. Requirements: at least €10M turnover and 50 employees in Finland in 2019, company is profitable and not overburdened by debt. The investment can be either equity or convertible loan.

Apply in Finnish

Their application link on their English website is currently broken, but I’ve emailed them about it and it should be fixed shortly.