COFIDES, Spain's development financier and the FOCO co-investment fund

FOCO brings foreign capital into Spain

FOCO is a public financial instrument managed by COFIDES whose stated aim is to mobilise resources from foreign investors, both public and private, to promote productive investments by private companies in Spain in strategic sectors. It supports activities linked to the green and digital transition, sustainable mobility, sustainable agriculture, and technological innovation, and those that contribute to the strategic objectives of Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

The eligibility line is geographic and explicit. FOCO provides financial support to productive projects and investments carried out on Spanish territory by companies with registered offices in the European Union and work centres in Spain. The direction of travel is into Spain, not out of it.

FOCO has an allotment of EUR 2,000 million and is valid indefinitely, with returns reinvested into new operations.

The co-investor requirement is the mechanism, not a preference

FOCO investments are always made jointly with a foreign co-investor. The eligible co-investors are private companies participating in corporate entities in Spain, foreign private and public institutional investors including investment funds, pension funds, insurance companies, public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, and domestic private investment vehicles and entities that attract foreign investors.

The amount contributed by foreign co-investors for each operation must be at least equal to FOCO's contribution. Where FOCO invests in a vehicle rather than directly, it requires that vehicle to have contributions from foreign investors totalling at least what FOCO contributes, and its holdings in invested vehicles may not be majority holdings.

FOCO's investments consist primarily of equity contributions, with hybrid equity or debt instruments available on similar terms to co-investors. It may also co-invest directly in specific operations originated and led by other investment funds.

The FOCO numbers, and what they are attached to

The ticket per operation is EUR 10 million to EUR 150 million. The funding limit is a maximum of EUR 150 million per sponsor group or fund, and the minimum is EUR 10 million for direct investments in companies or for contributions to vehicles or investment funds.

Those figures are real and published, and they belong to operations that put capital to work in Spain alongside a foreign co-investor of at least equal size. They are not a range for backing a fund investing somewhere else.

Own resources are outbound project financing

COFIDES' second instrument runs the other way. Joint ventures and subsidiaries of Spanish companies can obtain COFIDES financing in eligible countries to create a new business, buy an existing one, or expand an existing activity.

The instruments are share capital holdings, subordinated loans, joint venture loans, and ordinary loans to the project company and to the Spanish investor. The financing available per project starts at EUR 75,000 and runs to a maximum of EUR 10 million. That is project financing per project, not a fund commitment, and the distinction matters because the two numbers on this page describe two different products.

The net equity of COFIDES' own resources stood at EUR 238 million as of 31 May 2026.

How this may fit

COFIDES is a fit for a narrower set of readers than most institutions in this directory, and saying so saves time.

• If the proposed fund has no Spanish connection, check whether either route applies before preparing a detailed approach. The instrument’s purpose is the useful starting point.
• If you can bring foreign capital into a productive investment in Spain in a strategic sector, FOCO is the instrument, and you need a foreign co-investor contributing at least as much as FOCO.
• If you are a Spanish company financing a joint venture or subsidiary abroad, own resources are the instrument, at EUR 75,000 to EUR 10 million per project.
• If you manage a vehicle, note that FOCO will not take a majority holding and will require foreign investor contributions at least equal to its own.
• Frame the case against Spain's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan objectives where it applies, since FOCO names them directly.