Froda and Kontist by Shine bring EU-backed financing to Germany's self-employed for the first time

Germany is home to a self-employed population of around 3.6 million, yet they remain largely excluded from traditional business financing. A May 2026 ifo survey found one in five self-employed people fear for their economic future, more than double the rate across the broader economy. Meanwhile, access to credit is tightening – banks are at their most restrictive in credit negotiations since 2017, the last comparable low point for credit access. Sole traders face the steepest barriers of all, typically lacking the required income documentation and collateral, and where credit is available, it's at higher rates.

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Support schemes for micro-businesses have long existed, but rarely reached the smallest borrowers. Processing a small loan costs a lender almost as much as a large one, so sole traders never cleared the threshold. By combining the InvestEU guarantee implemented by the European Investment Fund (EIF) with Froda's automated underwriting processes, it becomes viable to reach these borrowers at scale, faster and more cost-effectively than any manual process allows.

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“For the first time, the unit economics of small-business lending actually work in the borrower's favour, with the InvestEU guarantee taking care of the risk and the automation taking care of the cost. A sole trader in Germany with a healthy business no longer has to walk into a bank and leave empty-handed. That's what we’ve built, and with Kontist by Shine, Germany is just the beginning,” said Olle Lundin, CEO and co-founder of Froda.

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“We’ve already come far in making credit available to small businesses by enabling them to use their own payment and accounting data to demonstrate their creditworthiness. We are excited to expand our partnership with Froda, and through it, bring InvestEU-backed financing, so we can offer credit to even more small businesses at even better terms,” said Martin Hegelund, co-founder of Shine.

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A purpose-built microfinancing guarantee

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The EIF, part of the European Investment Bank, works through licensed financial partners. In this partnership, that role is filled by Froda, using the guarantee to extend financing to entrepreneurs that otherwise have limited access to funding. For Kontist by Shine's customers, that will translate into higher approval rates, more competitive pricing and faster decisions. Eligible customers can apply directly inside the Kontist app and receive a decision in minutes, with creditworthiness assessed from their own payment and accounting data rather than collateral or paperwork.

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"Too many self-employed people and micro-entrepreneurs still struggle to access financing despite running viable businesses. By combining EU-backed guarantees with digital lending models, initiatives like this can help reach groups that have traditionally fallen outside the scope of conventional bank lending. That is exactly the kind of market gap InvestEU is designed to address,” said Marjut Falkstedt, EIF Chief Executive. 

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In 2025, Froda became the first company to secure an InvestEU microfinancing guarantee covering all EU member states. Germany is the second market, after Sweden, where that agreement is being put to work: Europe's largest economy, yet among the hardest markets for a lender to enter, requiring a full financial licence that has kept most fintechs out. Froda holds that licence, while Kontist by Shine brings the infrastructure and customer base to match, a partnership built to scale market by market.

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About Kontist by Shine

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, Shine's vision is to restore the joy of running a business, by ending wasted time on financial admin. Shine offers a ‘financial copilot’ by integrating its solutions into a single platform for invoicing, accounting, payroll, business accounts, payments, and financing. Shine is a leading European fintech unicorn, operating mainly across France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, serving over 400,000 customers.

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About European Investment Fund (EIF)

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the European Investment Bank Group specialised in providing guarantees, securitisation and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.

In 2023, the EIF together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund-of-funds to scale up innovative startups. To date, this initiative has already enabled the creation of 15 European venture capital mega-funds and scaled up 45 companies, including 12 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital).

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About InvestEU

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

About Froda
Founded in 2015, Froda set out to redefine business financing by making it accessible, efficient, and empowering for small and medium-sized enterprises. Through digital processes and technological innovation, Froda has shortened the loan process from months to minutes, making it easy for entrepreneurs to invest in their ideas and grow with ease. Today, Froda is one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech scaleups. With a strategic focus on embedded financing, Froda has expanded across the Nordics, the UK, Ireland and Germany, partnering with industry leaders like Visa, Checkout.com, Lunar. Froda is a licensed credit market company under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.