Participatiefonds/Fonds de Participation (Belgium)

Karen opened her chocolate boutique in Antwerp in 2007 and has never looked back since. She runs the business herself and has kept it afloat through hard work and dedication to a cause which many people are passionate about – chocolate.

Karen graduated as a jeweller and goldsmith but could not find the job she was looking for. After searching to no avail, she started working in a local shop knowing that it wasn’t really the job of her dreams.

In a bid to find her dream job, she started following evening classes to become a chocolate confectioner. In the meantime, she worked in a coffee shop to make a living while planning how she could start her own business.

Her passion for chocolate was luckily coupled with a passion for entrepreneurship, so when the opportunity came to turn this into a reality, she went to the Belgian financial intermediary FdP (Participatiefonds/Fonds de Participation) for finance and left with EUR 12,000 “feeling like a kid in a sweet shop“!

Karen hopes to keep the passion alive and is already planning on diversifying her business offering by looking to start making specialities on demand for those sweet-toothed clients in Antwerp.

Company: Karelicious, Antwerp
Type of business: Chocolate boutique
EU-guaranteed loan from FdP: EUR 12,000

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Belgium, please refer to:
http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/be/