14 EIC Partners Listed Among Financial Times' Top 125 European Startup Hubs — What It Means for EIC Beneficiaries
- ›The Financial Times 2024 ranking of Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs lists 125 organisations and 14 of them are EIC Partners offering services to EIC beneficiaries through the EIC Service Catalogue.
- ›The 14 named partners include accelerators, EIT KICs and regional innovation organisations from Portugal, Romania, Germany, France, Spain and Belgium.
- ›EIC Service Catalogue and the EIC Ecosystem Partnership programme aim to connect awardees with tailored incubation, prototyping, IP, matchmaking and fundraising support.
- ›EIC ACCESS+ is the co-financing instrument intended to subsidise access to these partner services with lump sum Financial Support to Third Parties covering up to 50 percent of costs up to EUR 60 000.
- ›The FT ranking relies heavily on alumni surveys and expert testimony, which introduces subjective and selection biases that readers should factor in when using the list to choose providers.
Context and headline
The European Innovation Council has highlighted that 14 organisations listed in the Financial Times and Statista ranking of Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs for 2024 are also EIC Partners. These organisations are available to EIC beneficiaries, including Accelerator, Pathfinder and Transition awardees and Seal of Excellence holders, through the EIC Service Catalogue. The EIC frames these linkages as a way to broaden access to specialised acceleration, incubation and sector-focused services for deep tech and innovation projects across Europe.
Which EIC Partners appear on the Financial Times top 125 list
The Financial Times list identifies the 125 European centres it judged to offer the best incubation and acceleration programmes for founders. Fourteen organisations that are listed on the FT ranking are also registered EIC Partners providing services on the EIC Service Catalogue. The list below reproduces the names and FT positions reported by the EIC.
| FT Rank | Organisation | Country |
| 10 | Startup Lisboa - Unicorn Factory Lisboa | Portugal |
| 11 | InnovX | Romania |
| 12 | SpinLab | Germany |
| 25 | BGI - Building Global Innovators | Portugal |
| 44 | IPN - Instituto Pedro Nunes | Portugal |
| 46 | IncubAlliance | France |
| 51 | Techcelerator | Romania |
| 89 | EIT Food | Belgium |
| 98 | EIT Urban Mobility | Belgium |
| 99 | Starburst | France |
| 112 | EIT Health | Germany |
| 117 | Plug and Play | Spain |
| 118 | EIT Digital | Belgium |
| 124 | Beta-i | Portugal |
How the Financial Times ranking was constructed
Readers should note that the process is survey driven and self-selecting. Hubs that applied were able to nominate alumni for follow up. This design introduces potential biases relating to who responds, which cohorts of alumni are reached, and how success is defined across sectors. The FT methodology privileges user experience and reputation rather than a single objective measure of impact.
What the EIC Service Catalogue and Ecosystem Partnerships offer
The EIC recommends that beneficiaries use the Service Catalogue to find highly technical or niche resources and then apply for the ACCESS+ co-funding where appropriate. The catalogue also lists some offers that are free, some at reduced or negotiable rates, and others that are provided at full commercial price or via equity agreements.
EIC Business Acceleration Services reported achievements and a cautious read
The EIC publishes headline performance figures for its Business Acceleration Services. These include over 20 000 one-on-one meetings between awardees and corporates, procurers and investors since 2021, 595 reported deals, €350 million raised through investor outreach activities, €1.2 billion raised by EIC Scaling Club members since joining and various procurement and trade fair outcomes. The programme also reports coaching and skill development numbers, such as more than 2 400 EIC awardees coached and high self-reported increases in procurement and entrepreneurial capabilities.
These numbers document scale and activity but they do not by themselves prove long term impact. Reported fundraising totals may mix direct effects of EIC activity with external investor dynamics. Deal counts do not indicate deal size or longevity. Self-reported coaching outcomes measure perceived capability increases and not necessarily commercial success. Independent verification and longitudinal studies would be necessary to assess causal effects of BAS interventions on scaleup survival, job creation and systemic innovation outcomes.
Limits and practical cautions for EIC beneficiaries
Practical next steps for innovators
If you are an EIC awardee or a Seal of Excellence holder and want to engage with these partners follow these steps. 1. Register and log in to the EIC Community Platform to access the EIC Service Catalogue. 2. Filter offers by service category, project stage and sector to shortlist providers that match your TRL and technical needs. 3. Check whether you are eligible for EIC ACCESS+ co-funding and review the open call timeline. 4. Contact shortlisted partners and request references from alumni in similar sectors or stages. 5. If you plan to request ACCESS+ funding prepare a clear justification of the service, expected milestones and a simple budget showing the requested co-funding amount.
Bottom line
Having 14 EIC Partners appear in the Financial Times top 125 startup hubs is a useful signal of recognised capacity inside the EIC network. The Service Catalogue and the ACCESS+ co-funding mechanism create practical routes for awardees to buy specialised support. At the same time users should be clear eyed about what rankings and headline activity numbers do and do not prove. Select partners on the basis of sector and stage fit, verify references, and use the co-funding tools where they reduce financial barriers to accessing genuinely specialised services.