EIC Accelerator slashes 2024 support for startups
The European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme has slashed the support for deeptech startups in 2024.
The total budget for the EIC Accelerator in 2024 is €675m, down from €1.1bn last year, with key changes to the way the programme is managed.
The total available funding for the grant component is €270m, which is expected to fund 108 companies in 2024. This would be significantly less than the 223 selected companies in 2022 and also less than the 130 selected companies in 2023 so far, including all the ones up to the June cut-off – since the companies that submitted a full application in November will go through the face-to-face interview in late January 2024.
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€375mn of the fund is allocated for the Open call, €300mn for the six Challenge calls and the budget is further split for the grant component – 40% of the total, and equity component – 60% of the total. This means for the open call: €150mn is reserved for the grant component and €225mn for the equity component while for the Challenge calls there is €120mn for the grant component and €180mn for the equity component.
An additional €180mn is available as a “reserve amount for follow-on investments”, a provision mainly for previously selected grant-first beneficiaries and available in the form of an equity component.
For deeptech the challenge calls cover metavese development for Industry 5.0 and quantum technologies.
The equity elements are now being managed by the European Investment Bank following the restructuring of the EIC.
The Accelerator programme is also changing to reduce the number of companies applying. Three rejections by the programme at any stage will see companies locked out until the next funding round in 2028.
The submission of the short application remains open at any time. Only two cut-off dates for the full application are planned in 2024, the 13th of March and 3rd of October.
https://eic.ec.europa.eu/index_en
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