The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB), together with the German KfW, the Italian Cassa depositi e prestiti and France’s Caisse des Dépôts, have announced the first pooled EUR 420 million for the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund to finance broadband network infrastructure across underserved areas in Europe. The fund aims to pool around EUR 500 million in guarantees in order to mobilise at least EUR 1 billion in investment over five years. It is the first investment platform to support broadband infrastructure under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which is the central pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe. On 6 July, the EIB also signed a EUR 100 million loan with Grupo Antolin to finance its RDI strategy in the automotive sector. In Greece, the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Cooperative Bank of Thessaly (CBT) signed a microfinance guarantee agreement on 4 July under the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI), with EFSI support. The loan guarantee will allow CBT to provide a total of EUR 7.5 million in loans to 500 micro-entrepreneurs over the next 5 years. Meanwhile, Groupe Rouiller of France received a loan of EUR 50 million on 29 July that will finance R&D in animal and plant nutrition. The EIB is also providing a EUR 27.3 million loan to finance modernisation of the Poznań Medical University.