Besides People, Finances are one of the main resources for business. Business development from the very early birth stage via development phases towards gaining larger market share is inconceivable without a large supply of financial intermediaries and their services whether it concerns ‘seed money’ for startups, bank loans for already established businesses or large guarantees for exporters. The choice of appropriate financing mechanism for a given company or business process depends on number of factors. Some ‘early bird’ stage startups require at the beginning small amounts of ‘seed money’ to develop their idea until the ‘incubation’ phase. At this stage of development which incurs a whole lot of risks, there is no point of assets or balance sheet, nor collateral. Only few institutions or individuals – so called FFF, are willing to lend money. Once the startup phase ends, company may apply for crowdfinancing, when well established and has got proper financial records, there are banks offering loans to secure financing. Moving further in company’s lifecycle the larger funds or more capital is needed. Then companies start IPO process which refers to equity financing. There are financial intermediaries dealing with more specific financial mechanisms , e.g. mezzanine financing, etc.
In order to involve academia in fostering an open innovation eco-system and developing IT solutions for the needs of Silver economy, proper Funding mechanisms should be in place. Unfortunately, this is not yet case in Latvia, especially when it comes to cooperation between academia and seniors, e.g. training of seniors in ICT or other areas and/or developing entrepreneurship skills. Since in many cases seniors simply might not be able to cover the costs of training, such Funding mechanisms are essential. According to our best knowledge, so far aforementioned activities, that has been implemented by academia and involved seniors, has mostly be covered by EU funded projects. Yet, given the importance of the Silver economy, funding could also come from other sources, such as (i) the government of Latvia: funding that would be granted to particular higher education institutions (national level) to support training of seniors; (ii) municipalities (in the regions) as well as (iii) private sector.
According to our best knowledge so far no financial mechanism support schemes has been established in order to support an open innovation eco-system and silver economy by involving seniors in Latvia.
As the Silver Economic Ecosystem in Latvia is just beginning to take shape, the legislation and regulatory framework in this area is also in its infancy. The existing normative acts apply to separate areas and do not form a unified whole, which would allow to solve the problems of seniors at the national level in all spheres of their life and activity. Incentive mechanisms have not been developed for businesses that would be willing to offer suitable work for seniors, as well as there are practically no effective means by which people of retirement age could be interested in returning to the labor market. Also, in Latvia's development plans, the Silver Economy is practically not marked and is not perceived as an important area of the national economy. The difficult demographic situation in the country, the rapid depopulation of rural areas, as well as the problems caused by Covid 19 call for immediate action to address these issues. In order to be able to start this work successfully, it is necessary not only to involve good and competent specialists, but also to provide support at the level of state management, which would ensure a complex, coordinated approach to the creation of the Silver Economic Ecosystem. Some steps in this area are being taken directly as a result of the OSIRIS project. There is reason to believe that this will help to resolve, or at least mobilize, some players in the public, business and academic systems to work together in the field of SE.