EIC Accelerator pilot closes with €176 million to 38 start-ups and SMEs and a warning on the hard work ahead
- ›The European Innovation Council pilot’s final Accelerator round selected 38 start-ups and SMEs for a total of around €176 million in support.
- ›Each company can receive a grant of up to €2.5 million and 19 companies will be offered equity investment from the EIC Fund of up to €15 million each.
- ›The round drew more than 4,200 applications, the highest number to date, and is the last selection under the EIC pilot before the full EIC under Horizon Europe is launched.
- ›The EIC uses a blended finance model combining grants with direct equity to try to fill a scaling finance gap for deep tech, but questions remain about follow-on funding, terms and commercial outcomes.
- ›Since December 2019 the pilot Accelerator has selected 293 companies for just over €1 billion in support, while 1,291 additional proposals received a Seal of Excellence to help access alternative funding.
EIC Accelerator pilot ends pilot phase with 38 beneficiaries and €176 million in commitments
On 26 February 2021 the European Commission announced the results of the final selection round of the European Innovation Council Accelerator pilot. The round identified 38 start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises to receive support worth in aggregate around €176 million. The selection concludes the pilot era of the EIC Accelerator and comes ahead of the full European Innovation Council programme expected to launch under Horizon Europe with a larger budget and redesigned procedures.
What was awarded and how
The funding offered follows the Accelerator’s blended financing model. Every successful company is eligible for a development grant of up to €2.5 million to move technology to market. Nineteen of the 38 companies were also identified to receive a direct equity investment from the newly created EIC Fund. That equity component can reach up to €15 million per company. The Commission reported that the selected firms come from 18 countries, with the largest numbers originating in Germany, France and Israel. Twenty one percent of CEO positions among the beneficiaries are held by women.
| Metric | Value |
| Total selected in this round | 38 companies |
| Total announced funding | Approximately €176 million |
| Grant component per company | Up to €2.5 million |
| Equity component | 19 companies eligible, up to €15 million each |
| Applications received | More than 4,200 (highest to date) |
| Countries represented | 18 |
| Female CEOs | 21 percent |
| Total EIC Accelerator pilot since Dec 2019 | 293 companies selected, over €1 billion committed |
| Seal of Excellence awarded to other proposals | 1,291 start-ups and SMEs |
| Planned budget for full EIC under Horizon Europe | €10 billion |
How companies were chosen
The announcement emphasised the competitiveness of the selection. External experts first assessed written proposals. The highest scoring 134 proposals were invited to online pitching sessions. Those virtual pitches were evaluated by an independent jury made up of experts, investors and entrepreneurs. The final selections were then recommended for grant and, where relevant, equity offers.
Notable examples and sectors
The Commission highlighted a range of use cases among the selected companies to illustrate the programme’s breadth. Examples cited included a rapid diagnostic device for sepsis, robotic sorting technology intended to reduce hazardous waste, and an indoor plant light system designed to cut energy consumption. The selected cohort spans health technologies, green and circular technologies, quantum and advanced manufacturing among other deep tech areas.
Support beyond money
Alongside cash the EIC Accelerator offers business acceleration services that include coaching, networking and other support aimed at helping companies grow and attract follow-on finance. The announced beneficiaries will be invited to use these services as they prepare to scale.
Context in the EU innovation ecosystem
The EIC Accelerator pilot launched as an attempt to address a widely recognised gap in Europe’s innovation financing landscape: promising deep tech firms often reach a point where research grants are no longer sufficient but private capital is cautious about complex hardware or long time to market. The blended model is an explicit policy attempt to close that valley of death by using public capital to catalyse private investors.
A measured, sceptical reading of the announcement
The funding of 38 companies is a concrete result and the headline totals are meaningful. At the same time readers should treat some of the claims in context. Pilot rounds and initial investments are an early stage in a long process. Grants and initial equity do not guarantee commercial success. The EIC’s blended model can reduce financing friction, but it also raises questions about how equity terms are set, how conflicts of interest are managed, how follow-on funding and exit pathways will develop, and whether public money is priced appropriately relative to private markets.
Other practical questions remain. EISMEA and the Commission have improved outreach and administrative processes compared with early Horizon 2020 practice, but start-ups routinely cite complexity and long negotiating times as barriers. For hardware and deep tech companies, multiple rounds of capital and regulatory steps will be required. Tracking real impact requires transparent follow up on commercialization, revenues, follow‑on investment and jobs created.
What to watch next
If you follow the EIC and Europe’s deep tech scale-up agenda, these are the indicators that will matter in the medium term.
- Conversion of offers into signed grants and equity agreements and the speed of those negotiations. - Amount and valuation of follow-on private investment attracted to the selected companies. - Commercial milestones achieved by beneficiaries such as regulatory approvals, pilots with paying customers and revenues. - Geographic balance of funding and whether EIC support reaches beyond established innovation clusters. - Transparency on investment terms from the EIC Fund and reporting on success metrics beyond the number of companies supported.
Why this matters for EU innovation policy
The EIC pilot has been a testing ground for policies that will scale under the fully fledged EIC within Horizon Europe. The Commission has committed to a larger envelope and simpler applications under the €10 billion EIC. That scale is intended to help address Europe’s chronic underinvestment in deep tech. The success of the programme therefore depends not only on headline commitments but on delivery mechanics, transparency, follow-on capital markets and the ability of recipients to convert research into industrial scale businesses in Europe rather than relocating to ecosystems with deeper venture capital pools.
Bottom line
The last pilot selection of the EIC Accelerator delivered a sizable package of grant and equity offers to a cohort of 38 start-ups and SMEs. The combination of grant funding and direct equity investment is an important experiment in public risk taking for deep tech. The long term value of the intervention depends on execution, transparency and follow-on performance. If the full EIC under Horizon Europe is to justify its larger budget it will need to show that its investments translate into scaling businesses, large follow-on funding rounds, and retained industrial capacity in Europe.
Further reading and sources
Primary announcement from the European Commission and EIC on 26 February 2021. Background documentation on the EIC Fund, the Seal of Excellence and the EISMEA implementation of the EIC can be found on the Commission, EIC and EISMEA websites. For verification and performance tracking look for future EISMEA and EIC portfolio updates, Commission reports on Horizon Europe implementation and audit reports from the European Court of Auditors.