EIC Accelerator - Eight Bavarian deep-tech start-ups to receive EIC funding

Following the first round of the EIC Accelerator 2024 in March, the European Innovation Council (EIC) has selected 68 European companies in a highly competitive process for funding that combines grants and equity. Eight of the thirteen German companies are from Bavaria. BayFOR has successfully supported one of them.

The eight Bavarian companies are

tozero GmbH
kiutra GmbH
Proxima Fusion GmbH
Marvel Fusion GmbH
Turn Energy GmbH
DCUBED - Deployables Cubed GmbH
Cerabyte GmbH
Phlair (formerly Carbon Atlantis GmbH)

As a Bavarian partner in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN),  BayFOR has successfully supported one of these companies: tozero GmbH.

The Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) is a partner in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the largest advisory network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. The Enterprise Europe Network supports SMEs in EU-related, relevant topics such as EU funding opportunities, international partnerships, EU certification and internal market regulations.

The Bavarian innovation ecosystem, with its strong public and private stakeholders and R&D-oriented universities, plays a key role in this result. The dynamic ecosystem enables spin-offs and the rapid development of highly innovative companies that bring groundbreaking products with a European dimension to the market. This is exactly the profile of the successful EIC Accelerator applicants.

The full list of selected companies is available here.

Out of a total of 969 companies that submitted a full proposal, 347 companies were interviewed by a jury of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. From these, the jury selected the 68 best companies. The selected companies will receive an estimated total of €411 million, of which up to €165 million will be in the form of grants and an estimated €245 million will be in the form of equity capital. The amount of equity is estimated on the basis of the average investment made by the EIC Fund under Horizon Europe after due diligence and not on the basis of the amounts requested by the companies.

Most of the selected companies (96%) receive full blended finance, i.e. a combination of grant and equity investment. The equity investment is channelled through the EIC Fund, the dedicated investment arm of the EIC, which attracts additional investors to increase the total investment to more than three times the EIC investment on average. The selected companies are geographically spread across 17 countries, including 5 proposals from candidate countries. 21 of the selected companies are women-led.

In most cases, the companies will receive the funds within the next three months, with investment decisions depending on the urgency of the companies' needs.

A further 273 applications, which were assessed positively by the EIC jury but for which insufficient funds were available, will receive a Label of Excellence. The Label of Excellence is intended to help these businesses access alternative sources of funding, such as the European Regional Development Fund and the European Recovery and Resilience Fund.

More information is available here.

Source: EU Commission