EU invests €627m in 99 startups
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has announced 99 companies that will receive a total of E627m in grants and equity investments with a focus on medical and AI softwar startups.
Each company can receive up to a maximum of EUR 17.5 million and were selected following a rigorous process, introduced under Horizon Europe, involving an ideas screening stage, and full applications assessed by external experts and an interview with a jury of experienced investors and entrepreneurs.
The EIC highlights MIWA Technologies from Czechia developing smart reusable packaging which minimises waste as well as SC DOTLUMEN from Romania developing glasses for the blind with a technology to understand the environment and give feedback using sound and impulses.
Oher electronics companies receiving backing include SiPearl with the maximum E17.5m for its ARM-based exascale supercomputer chip, Lotus Microsystems in Denmark for a tiny power converter, Broadbit Batteries building sodium batteries in Finland and qphox in the Netherlands developing the world’s first quantum modem. The vast majority of companies backed are for medical and AI software applications rather than deeptech.
16 percent of successful companies were from France, with 12 percent from Grmany and 12 percent from Israel, closely followed by 11 percent from Spain. 19 percent of companies were led by female CEOs.
In most cases, the companies will receive the grant financing within the coming months, while the equity investment is likely to take longer as the arrangements for implementing EIC equity need to be re-established under Horizon Europe. This delay will also affect companies selected in the previous funding round.
Companies can submit their ideas to the EIC Accelerator at any time. For ideas meeting the EIC criteria for excellence, impact and risk-level, companies are invited to prepare full applications to submit to one of the regular cut-off dates. Due to a delay in the adoption of the EIC Work Programme, the January 2022 cut-off date has been postponed.
Since its launch in March 2021, over 4,000 start-ups and SMEs have sent their ideas and over 1800 have submitted full applications to the cut-offs in June and October.
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