European Innovation Council Accelerator: 51 deep tech start-ups selected to get funding and investments

By Bart Brouwers

A new set of 51 companies have been selected to receive European Innovation Council (EIC) funding, combining grants and equity, following the second 2023 EIC Accelerator cut-off in March. The 51 selected companies will receive €260 million of funding from grants and equity investments.

The companies were selected in a highly competitive process in which 139 were interviewed by juries of experienced investors and entrepreneurs out of 551 full proposals submitted. 

The equity investments will be made through the EIC Fund. The selected companies have a geographical spread spanning 17 countries. Almost 30% percent (15 of the 51 companies) have a female CEO, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) or CSO (Chief Scientific Officer).

Stentit

Former Gerard and Anton award winner Stentit is one of the lucky start-ups to receive funding. “The 12.5 million we receive will be used for the first clinical trials with patients at risk of leg amputation and to introduce our regenerative stents to the medical market”, the company says in a statement on Linkedin.

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“It’s so rewarding to witness such support by the European Commission and see our proposal being chosen among the more than 500 submissions. This pays off for years of hard work and gives us new energy for the work ahead of us. This recognition is not just for our team, but also the people who have been trusting us all this time and, most importantly, all our patients.”

Here are some other examples of innovative projects and companies that will receive support:

• Thirona (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) – Facilitating personalized Lung Treatment Decisions through a Deeptech AI Clinical Decision Support System
• Morphotonics (Veldhoven, the Netherlands) – Mass Manufacturing Augmented Reality (AR) Waveguides via Roll-to-Plate Nanoimprinting
• Project SUBRACABLE (company Subra a/s from Denmark) – making superconducting power grids a feasible solution for Europe).
• Project Twinspect (company Twinsity from Germany) – first fast and automated (<5 min) AI-based inspection to increase operational safety of large critical infrastructure, e.g., bridges, dams, and oil & gas platforms and refineries.
• Project WIDMO cities (company SGPR.tech from Poland) – providing complete subsurface information of the urban areas.
• Project Adapte (company Cephalgo from France) – a novel and accurate emotion recognition system for real-time and continuous patient monitoring in psychiatry.
• Project PATS (company Mu-G Knowledge Management BV from the Netherlands) –automated insect control platform to eradicate pests.

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In most cases, the companies will receive the grant financing within the next two to three months, while the first investment decisions will be made within two months.  A further 88 applications that met all the criteria at the remote evaluation stage and that were assessed positively by the EIC jury, but not recommended for funding will be awarded a Seal of Excellence to help them find alternative sources of funding, including from the Recovery and Resilience Funds and European Regional Development Funds

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Submit new ideas

The EIC Accelerator offers start-ups and SMEs grants of up to €2.5 million combined with equity investments through the EIC Fund ranging from €0.5 to €15 million or more. In addition to financial support, all projects benefit from a range of Business Acceleration Services that provide access to leading experts, corporates, investors, and ecosystem actors.

Companies can submit their ideas to the EIC Accelerator at any time, which are evaluated within approximately four weeks. For ideas meeting the EIC criteria for excellence, impact, and risk level, companies are invited to prepare complete applications to submit to one of the regular cut-off dates. The next cut-off for EIC Accelerator full proposals is on 4 October 2023.

The complete list: