Investment Plan: €27 million in EUfinancing for Finnish software company M-Files - Hoofdinhoud

The European Investment Bank (EIB i) has signed a €27 million financing agreement with software company M-Files from Tampere, Finland. The loan was made possible by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), central pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe, which was launched by the EIB Group and the European Commission i to boost the competitiveness of the European economy. This operation is the EIB’s largest commitment in the Finnish IT sector for years. With these funds, the rapidly growing company aims to revolutionise the way organisations manage and use information, making it more intelligent, intuitive and compliant.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen i, responsible for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, said: "I am pleased that the European Fund for Strategic Investments is supporting M‑Files' international growth and R&D activities. M-Files is a great example of the sort of innovative, fast-growing company that we want to enable in Europe, and this agreement should provide inspiration to other companies working in the digital and artificial intelligence sectors. It's also gratifying that this investment is directly supporting the creation of numerous jobs: a core objective of the Investment Plan."

EIB Vice-President Alexander Stubb i, responsible for lending in Northern Europe, said: “The amount of data that organisations have to deal with on a daily basis has been exploding for quite some time now, and the systems used to manage and process that data have not always kept up. M-Files already has an excellent position in the market, but we believe that it has the potential to fundamentally change how businesses leverage information in the future and, in the process, get much bigger. We’re happy to support that.”

M-Files CEO Miika Mäkitalo, added: “To compete and succeed in the future requires a new way of thinking; the old approach of storing everything in one central system no longer works. M-Files takes an entirely different approach, applying artificial intelligence to organise data based on what it is and what it's related to, regardless of where it's stored. This unifies information across the organisation, putting it in context, so it's instantly available when it's needed. It's dynamic and personalised, whereas the old way is static, top-down and based on a one-size-fits-all approach. We call this intelligent information management, and it's going to change the way the world manages information."

M-Files’ customer base includes both small-to-midsize businesses and large enterprises in a variety of industries and markets, including manufacturing, professional services, finance, engineering, construction, energy and life sciences. Recent research[1] shows growing demand for new approaches to information management, with the Content Services Platforms market growing by almost 12% in the last year. Over the same period, M-Files grew by almost 40%, reflecting a rapid expansion of its market share in an already competitive and expanding market. The EIB financing will not only allow M-Files to better serve its customer base, but also allow it to accelerate its already fast growth, creating new specialised jobs in Europe and beyond.

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. In 2017, the Bank made available in excess of EUR 1.3 billion in loans for Finnish projects.

M-Files provides a next-generation intelligent information management platform that improves business performance by helping people find and use information more effectively. Unlike traditional enterprise content management (ECM) systems or content services platforms, M-Files unifies systems, data and content across the organisation without disturbing existing systems and processes or requiring data migration. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in its unique Intelligent Metadata Layer, M‑Files breaks down silos by delivering an in-context experience for accessing and leveraging information that resides in any system and repository, including network folders, SharePoint, file-sharing services, ECM systems, CRM, ERP and other business systems and repositories. Thousands of organisations in more than 100 countries use M-Files for managing their business information and processes, including NBC Universal, OMV, Rovio, SAS Institute and thyssenkrupp. For more information, visit www.m-files.com.

About The Investment Plan for Europe

The Investment Plan for Europe focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects. The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the central pillar of the Juncker Plan. It provides a first loss guarantee, allowing the EIB to invest in more, often riskier, projects. So far, the projects and agreements approved for financing under the EFSI are expected to mobilise EUR 335 billion in investments and support around 700 000 SMEs across all 28 Member States. Find the latest EFSI figures by sector and by country here, or see the FAQs.

[1] Gartner Report “Market Share: Enterprise Application Software, Worldwide, 2017”; https://www.gartner.com/document/3877070