The European Innovation Council (EIC) selected 71 cutting-edge companies for funding, combining grants and equity, following the 2024 EIC Accelerator cut-off in October. They were selected among 1211 submitted proposals, out of which 431 were invited to the jury interviews. This has been the most competitive funding round so far since the launch of the Accelerator under Horizon Europe.
The selected companies will collectively receive up to €161 million in grants and approximately €226 million in equity. Notably, 79% of the companies will benefit from the full blended finance option, which combines grants and equity investments. Additionally, ten companies opted for grants only and five companies for equity-only funding. The equity investments will be made through the EIC Fund, the EIC’s dedicated investment arm and Europe’s largest deep-tech investor, which typically attracts additional investors and increases the overall investment to more than three times the EIC’s original amount.
21% of the selected companies are led by women (as CEO, CSO or CTO), while there is a geographical spread spanning 16 countries.
Here are some examples of innovative companies that will receive support for their breakthrough technologies:
- Brineworks (project BRINEWORKS) – technology enabling sustainable and affordable extraction of CO2 and hydrogen from the ocean;
- MOA Biotech (project MOA FOODTECH) – transforming agrifood byproducts into a next generation protein with high nutritional value;
- SICSAI (project HYPER) – new Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) foundation model for robots equipped with the capability to structure information into a world map to match humanlike learning;
- Endurosat (project SD-IRS) – developing the first fully integrated high data rate radio communication system (SD-IRS) for micro/small satellites
In most cases, the companies will receive the grant financing within the next three months, while the investment decisions depend on the urgency of the companies’ needs.
Four of the selected companies have benefitted from the ‘Plug In’ scheme. The scheme allows funding bodies managing certified national/regional programmes to submit projects from their portfolio directly to the full application stage of the EIC Accelerator.
A further 330 applications that were assessed positively by the EIC jury, but for which there was insufficient funding available, will be awarded a Seal of Excellence. This recognition helps these companies to find alternative funding sources, including from the Recovery and Resilience Funds and European Regional Development Funds.
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 (up to €10 million as of 2025). A significant innovation this year is the STEP Scale-up scheme, offering investments of up to €30 million. In addition to financial backing, all projects benefit from Business Acceleration Services, which provide access to leading expertise, corporate partners, investors, and ecosystem actors.
Companies can submit their ideas to the EIC Accelerator at any time, which are then evaluated within 6- 8 weeks. So far over ten thousand start-ups have submitted ideas since the EIC launch in 2021. Ideas that meet the EIC criteria for excellence, impact and risk-level, companies are invited to prepare full applications to submit for the regular cut-off dates. The next cut-off for EIC Accelerator full proposals, as announced in the EIC 2025 work programme, is scheduled for March 2025.
