09/08/2011 EuroInvestors’ reply to the EC Consultation on a new European regime for Venture Capital.EuroInvestors (EFI) agrees with the European Commission (EC) that venture capital is particularly important for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the EU, since venture capital provides finance to companies with promising but untested business models that are confronted with high levels of uncertainty as regards their future prospects. In these circumstances, these companies often face difficulties to find access to other more traditional sources of funding, in particular innovative start-up businesses that face difficulty in accessing traditional bank lending or finance through stock exchanges. But, at the same time, EFI is concerned that by legitimately trying to ease venture capital funding for SMEs, the EC may be lowering the investors’ protection level.