Overview

The European Innovation Council aims to bridge a persistent early-stage financing gap for deep tech in Europe by combining grants with selective equity investments and bespoke business support. The Deep Tech Europe report published by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation presents key performance numbers for EIC portfolios and its legacy programmes such as the SME Instrument and the Future and Emerging Technologies programme. The figures reported reflect outputs and early impact indicators for the EIC Accelerator and the EIC Pathfinder portfolios up to 2020 and May 2020 where specified.

Headline numbers from the EIC portfolio (2020 snapshot)

What the EIC funds and how it operates

Interpreting the numbers with a critical lens

The figures published in the Deep Tech Europe report are useful early indicators but require careful interpretation. Follow-on private funding is a proxy for market validation but it is not a guaranteed predictor of long-term success. The reported €5.3 billion is cumulative follow-on capital across many recipients and years and is likely skewed by a subset of firms that captured large rounds. Survivorship and selection biases are important. EIC beneficiaries are cherry-picked for high potential which inflates comparative performance versus the general start-up population.

Employment growth is a tangible impact metric. The reported average increase of 108% over about 2.2 years shows that supported companies scale teams quickly. However the average can mask substantial variation between firms and sectors. Deep tech ventures often scale staff unevenly because of the need for specialized engineers or long development cycles.

Research outputs such as publications and patents quantify knowledge generation and IP activity. Pathfinder’s 3,702 publications and 46 patent filings indicate active research productivity. Patent numbers are modest relative to publications which is typical for early-stage research that still needs time to translate into patentable inventions and commercial assets.

The gender measure introduced in May 2020 that guarantees that at least 25 percent of applicants passing quality thresholds and invited to interviews are women-led aims to correct underrepresentation. The immediate result of 34 percent women-led in a 64-company selection is notable. These measures can improve diversity but they are not by themselves a structural fix for pipeline problems that reduce the number of women-led deep tech ventures.

Operational and governance context

The EIC operates within a complex EU ecosystem. EISMEA implements EIC programmes and liaises with partners including the European Investment Bank and the EIC Fund. Selection of evaluators, jury members and business coaches is drawn from Horizon Europe expert pools and follows non-discrimination principles. Practical processes include a two-step submission model for the Accelerator with a short proposal and video, followed by a full proposal and interviews for shortlisted candidates.

What these results imply for the European deep tech ecosystem

The EIC aims to tackle a structural gap in early-stage deep tech financing and to increase Europe’s capacity to create market-creating technologies. The report’s figures show that targeted public intervention can support companies to grow, attract private capital, and produce research outputs. But systemic challenges remain. Europe still needs more later-stage venture capital, better exit markets, and more coordinated support at regional level to convert promising research into sustained scaleups.

Policy signals embedded in the EIC such as combining grants, tailored acceleration and an investment fund are a pragmatic response to the unique risk profile of deep tech. The next challenge is to demonstrate durable ecosystem effects beyond the immediate cohort of supported companies. Longitudinal tracking, transparent data on the distribution of follow-on funding by round size and geography, and independent evaluations will be important to assess whether EIC interventions materially change the supply of scale-up companies across Europe.

Limitations and data caveats

Key caveats to keep in mind when using the reported indicators: timing cut-offs matter for cumulative figures, selection and survivorship biases can inflate apparent success rates, averages can hide skew, and many outcomes such as deep tech commercialisation take longer than the time window covered by these figures. Patent and publication counts capture different kinds of value and need contextual interpretation by field and technology readiness level.

Concluding remarks

The Deep Tech Europe numbers provide a snapshot of early impact for the EIC model. They support the proposition that well-targeted public funding combined with business acceleration services can help bridge early financing gaps and attract private follow-on investment. The data also underline familiar structural challenges in the European innovation system. A balanced assessment recognises the EIC as an important instrument but not a substitute for a broader policy effort to expand later-stage capital, strengthen market channels and improve inclusiveness in the deep tech pipeline.

Where to read more

The figures in this article are taken from the EIC Deep Tech Europe report published by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation on 1 March 2021. For operational details consult EISMEA and EIC programme pages on the European Commission websites which outline programme rules, the Funding and Tenders portal for submission procedures, and EIC Fund materials for investment guidelines and co-investment arrangements.