Financing a Business Acquisition Without Personal Equity in Europe
Think you need 30% equity to buy a business? Think again. This guide reveals how European entrepreneurs acquire businesses with zero or minimal personal capital using BPI France, KfW, Almi, seller financing, and honor loans with a worked example of a €200K acquisition.
## The Myth of the 30% Equity Rule Walk into a high street bank anywhere in Europe and you will hear a version of the same line: "You need 30% personal equity to buy a business." It is repeated as if it were physics. It isn't. It is a banking convention, and like every banking convention, it has workarounds for buyers who understand the structure. The 30% logic is straightforward. The lender wants the buyer to have enough skin in the game to push through a soft first quarter rather than walk away. Fair enough. But the unstated assumption that skin must come from your personal savings has no ba…