DEFINITE-CCRI · Deal Engine, with finance, investment and technical expertise for the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative

Effective investment and financing opportunities for circular economy projects in Europe are still few and far in between. Investors need to gain trust in circular economy projects. Projects need to become less risky and bankable, based on new and re-designed finance solutions and business models. Transaction costs need to be decreased and the private finance community needs to be engaged to address legal, administrative and market challenges. The DEFINITE-CCRI project establishes a deal engine, providing technical, financial and circular economy expertise through local project development assistance in an unprecedented and streamlined process to cities, regions and project developers. The deal engine will be built with investors and finance partners and the goal to launch investments in four circular economy projects of up to EUR 20 million investment volume per project, amounting to a total portfolio volume of up to EUR 80 million. The DEFINITE-CCRI will demonstrate the bankability of high-impact circularity projects and increases maturity and investor trust in circular economy innovation. It closes the gap between project developers in cities and regions on one side, and investors and finance partners on the other. The DEFINITE-CCRI project co-creates and proves an end-to-end PDA process, aggregating risk-mitigation, EU Taxonomy compliance, circularity criteria and technical and financial engineering in a single project development service for the CCRI’s service portfolio. Partners commit to operate the deal-engine sustainably beyond the project lifetime. This will inject the financial, technical and managerial know-how into urban circular transitions and ultimately contribute to lower virgin non-renewable material use, lower GHG emissions and more just and inclusive circular employment in line with the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Bioeconomy Strategy.