CEB lends €5M to expand finance for Roma entrepreneurs in four countries
What's the deal? The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → signed a €5 million loan with the REDI Fund, Europe's first microfinance vehicle dedicated to Roma entrepreneurship. The money will back Roma-owned and Roma-employing micro and small businesses in Albania, Kosovo, Moldova, and Romania.
The deal, signed in Paris on November 9 by CEBDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → vice governor Tomáš Boček and REDI Fund director Petrică Dulgheru, is backed by a guarantee from the CEB's Social Impact Account. It is expected to unlock more than €8 million in microloans between 2026 and 2028, supporting over 1,000 businesses and helping create or keep more than 2,000 jobs.
How it works: REDI will on-lend the money to local microfinance institutions, which then issue loans for equipment, productive assets, and working capital. The average microloan is expected to be around €7,000, financing small farms, family retail, crafts, and services.
At least 40% of the loan will go to Roma-owned businesses, with the rest to enterprises linked to Roma communities. REDI aims to direct at least 30% of sub-loans to women entrepreneurs. Finance is paired with business development services, financial literacy training, and loan application support.
Why it matters: Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority, estimated at 10 to 12 million people, and are twice as likely as other groups to live in poverty. Many small entrepreneurs rely on informal lenders on unfavourable terms.
“Roma entrepreneurs have never lacked ideas or the will to work, but too often lenders saw stereotypes instead of a business plan,” Dulgheru said. “Our borrowers have shown that they repay like any other client.”
Why now? This is the CEB's second loan to the REDI Fund, following a €3 million programme approved in 2021 that financed institutions in North Macedonia and Romania. Together with REDI's wider portfolio, that programme has supported about 460 borrowers to date, including 300 Roma entrepreneurs.
“Financial inclusion is essential to social cohesion,” Boček said. “This second loan builds on a partnership that is already making a real difference.”
Founded in Bucharest in 2016, REDI launched its Luxembourg-based fund in 2019 and now works across Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Turkey.
The signal: This is a targeted social-finance loan, not a conventional venture round — its value lies in the lending model, pairing small loans with business support, rather than the size of the facility. It fits a broader push to channel development-bank money to underserved borrowers; in 2025, the CEB agreed a separate €25 million loan to BCR Social Finance for Romanian micro-enterprises. The projected business and job counts remain targets, not demonstrated outcomes.
Read more: romania-insider.com
Image credit: Alistair Henning
