Young people with promising business ideas abound in the Mediterranean region. However, young entrepreneurs encounter severe credit constraints and gathering enough money to start or scale up their enterprise is often impossible. MEDSt@rts wants to help young people jump that deterrent hurdle. To do so, the project will develop an innovative supporting model to facilitate access to funding for “non-bankable” people. It will target strongly committed young Mediterranean people with innovative business ideas, either in initial or consolidation stage. Scouting, training and funding will be the three main steps of MEDSt@arts’ approach, and, as a result, new MSMEs will be launched in each participating country and new jobs will be created.

A.1 Business and SMEs development

A.1.1 Start-ups and recently established enterprises

The development of a new model of business support, inspired by ethical finance and solidarity principles, will allow many young and women’s entrepreneurs to create, develop and run their own enterprises. Eventually, the project will lead to the creation of 75 new enterprises by participating country and up to 225 new jobs.

• 75 young unemployed and aspiring entrepreneurs, early-stage businesses
• 60 microfinance actors as business angels, venture capitalists, private and public financial institutions
• High schools and university students
• Local authorities. MSMEs, local employment services providers, business centres, chambers of commerce

• 1 comprehensive database listing all microfinance schemes available in the Mediterranean area
• 60 organisations part of a Mediterranean network on microfinance and microcredit for business development
• 75 innovative business ideas identified and supported in different sectors, in particular digitization, sustainable tourism, handicraft, etc.
• 15 microfinance packages mixing direct support (sub-grant) and crowdfunding to support the growth of the best business ideas selected