All four Innovation Radar Prize 2024 winners were backed by the European Innovation Council
- ›The 10th Innovation Radar Prize took place in Lisbon on 11 November 2024 ahead of Web Summit.
- ›Of 12 finalists, seven had received European Innovation Council funding and all four category winners were EIC-backed.
- ›Winners were Gelatex, Qilimanjaro, AEInnova and Cellis with Cellis taking the overall prize.
- ›The Innovation Radar shortlisted entries from over 240 applicants and combined public voting with expert evaluation.
- ›The prize spotlights EU-funded projects for investors and public visibility but does not guarantee commercial success.
EIC-backed innovators sweep Innovation Radar Prize 2024 in Lisbon
On 11 November 2024 the tenth edition of the Innovation Radar Prize convened in Lisbon. The event took place just before the Web Summit and assembled 12 finalist startups drawn from EU funded projects. The Innovation Radar Prize is organised by the European Commission together with Dealflow.eu and a set of partners. This year seven of the twelve finalists had previously been funded by European Innovation Council programmes and all four category winners were beneficiaries of EIC support.
Event, organisers and format
The prize is co-organised by the European Commission and Dealflow.eu with partners that included Eura AG, Dealroom.co, Startup Lisboa, the European Startup Nations Alliance, EU-Startups and Unicorn Factory Lisboa. The 12 finalists pitched to an audience and to a mixed evaluation process. A public vote open to citizens was combined with assessments from external expert evaluators. The open voting attracted more than 2300 voters and this public input was weighed alongside expert judgement.
Who won and which EIC programmes supported them
| Winner | Category | EIC programme | Notes |
| Gelatex | HealthTech category winner | EIC Transition | Developer of high-throughput nanofibrous materials using halospinning for 3D cell culture, tissue engineering and cultured meat applications. |
| Qilimanjaro | NextGenTech category winner | EIC Transition | Listed as an EIC Transition beneficiary. Public details in the source are limited. |
| AEInnova | SustainabilityTech category winner | EIC Accelerator | Industrial IoT and condition monitoring company offering energy harvesting sensors, LoRaWAN connectivity and cloud analytics for predictive maintenance. |
| Cellis | Overall winner | EIC Transition | Biotech company developing cell based oncology therapies focused on engineered macrophages and tumour microenvironment modulation. |
What the winners do in plain terms
How the Innovation Radar selects and promotes innovations
Since 2015 the Innovation Radar has been a European Commission initiative to identify high potential innovations embedded in EU funded research and innovation projects. Each edition shortlists projects from a larger applicant pool. This year the committees screened more than 240 applicants and submitted a shortlist for public voting and expert evaluation. The stated goal of the initiative is to make outputs of EU funding visible to citizens, public officials and investors and to shepherd promising projects toward commercialisation.
Why the prize matters for the EU innovation ecosystem
The Innovation Radar Prize offers visibility at a high profile moment and access to investor networks. Hosting the ceremony ahead of the Web Summit magnifies exposure to international investors and ecosystem actors. For EU funded startups the award can translate into contacts, press coverage and validation when raising follow on funding. The prize also highlights the European Commission and allied platforms as conveners of innovation and investors.
Caveats and realistic expectations
Awards and visibility are helpful but they are not substitutes for product market fit regulatory approvals or sustained financing. EIC funding is an important milestone that signals technical and often early commercial validation. It is not a guarantee of long term market success. The public vote of a few thousand people provides helpful visibility but it is not a proxy for customer traction or industrial adoption. Startups in deeptech and biotech will still face long development timelines and regulatory complexity.
Looking ahead
The 2024 edition reinforces the European Innovation Council as a major source of early stage support for high potential startups in Europe. For investors and policymakers the key question remains how to convert visibility and early grants into scalable companies that create jobs and strategic industrial capacity in the EU. For the winning teams the immediate tasks will be to capitalise on the networking and investor exposure from the event, accelerate commercial partnerships and navigate the often lengthy steps from promising demonstration to deployed product.
Further information and disclaimers
The Innovation Radar initiative is managed by the European Commission. Past examples of companies that benefitted from early EU research funding include Skype, TomTom and ARM. The information in this article synthesises the official Innovation Radar announcement and publicly available company material. It is provided for knowledge sharing and should not be read as the official view of the European Commission or any other organisation.