European Innovation Council: New wave of deep tech start-ups set to receive Accelerator grants and equity investments
©European Union,2015 Source: EC Audiovisual Service Photo: Lieven-CreemersThe Commission selected 75 innovative start-ups after this year’s second European Innovation Council Accelerator cut-off in June. They were selected in a highly competitive process, in which 232 companies were interviewed by juries of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. Altogether they will receive close to €400 million of funding in a combination of grants and equity investments. The equity investments will be made through the EIC Fund, which is now fully operational. The selected companies have a wide geographical spread spanning 21 countries. 20% of the companies have female CEOs. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “Recently, the Commission has taken a major step in the restructuring of the European Innovation Council Fund with the appointment of an external fund manager. The EIC Accelerator and EIC Fund are now fully operational to provide its unique combination of grants, investments and business acceleration services to Europe’s most promising deep tech start-ups. The high interest in the Accelerator scheme confirms its relevance. I am also pleased to see a good participation of companies with female CEOs but would like to see even more in future.” Since EIC launch in March 2021, over 7,000 start-ups and SMEs have sent their ideas and over 4000 have submitted full applications. The companies announced today were among the 1006 that submitted to the second 2022 cut-off on 15 June, and join the 238 companies selected for funding by the EIC in 2021 and 2022. More details are available on the EIC website.
