EIC and CivTech Alliance pilot ePitching links GovTech buyers with Green PropTech innovators

Brussels, July 5th 2023

Summary

›On 21 June 2023 the European Innovation Council ran an ePitching event with the CivTech Alliance to match innovators with public procurers from Norway and Scotland on energy efficiency for buildings and cities.
›Nine companies pitched, six of them EIC beneficiaries, selected to cover a spread of Green PropTech approaches rather than overlapping competitors.
›Organisers from Norway and Scotland say the collaboration leverages complementary strengths of EIC and CivTech programmes but note the importance of building clear post-pitch pathways to contracts and procurement-ready tenders.
›Event highlights included interest in novel business models such as payment from energy savings and a strong positive reaction from procurers, though follow up and procurement adaptation remain the key challenges.

EIC ePitching with CivTech Alliance: piloting procurement matches for Green PropTech

On 21 June 2023 the European Innovation Council organised an online ePitching session in partnership with the CivTech Alliance. The goal was to expose public sector buyers to market-ready innovations that can improve energy efficiency in buildings and cities. Participants included nine innovative companies, six of which were EIC beneficiaries. Committed procurers from Norway and Scotland joined the event to hear pitches framed for innovation procurement. The collaboration marked the first formal joint activity between the EIC and the CivTech Alliance.

Item	Detail	Notes
Event	EIC ePitching with CivTech Alliance	Online pitching session
Date	21 June 2023
Companies pitched	9	6 were EIC beneficiaries
Buyer representation	Public procurers from Norway and Scotland
Focus area	Energy efficiency for buildings and cities	Labelled Green PropTech in selection
Organisers	European Innovation Council and CivTech Alliance	CivTech Alliance includes national GovTech programmes

Why the collaboration took place

Organisers framed the event as a practical experiment in combining two complementary networks. The CivTech Alliance brings programmes that embed government procurement teams and regional authorities with the explicit public sector buyer relationships. The EIC offers a large portfolio of vetted technology companies supported by EU funding. For both organisers the rationale was to speed up routes to public sector adoption of green technologies through direct exposure and structured matchmaking.

CivTech Alliance:A global network of GovTech and Civic Tech programmes that connects government innovation teams, academic partners and entrepreneurs. The Alliance shares methods and runs procurement-led innovation challenges similar to Scotland's CivTech model and Norway's StartOff Norway.

EIC Business Acceleration Services:A set of post-award services available to EIC awardees intended to help companies scale, reach buyers and attract investment. Services include matchmaking for procurement, investor readiness support and international expansion activities.

Voices from the organisers

The article includes interviews with two practitioners who helped put the event together. Magne Hareide is a Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management who works on innovation procurement and on the StartOff Norway programme. Alexander Holt works at the Directorate of Economic Development for the Scottish Government and is the founder of the CivTech Alliance. Both are active in the Alliance and both framed the ePitching as a first step towards stronger cooperation with the EIC.

Magne Hareide on motivation:Hareide described StartOff Norway as modelled on the Scottish CivTech programme. After winning the EIC European Innovation Procurement Award in December 2022 he and colleagues met EIC Business Acceleration Services representatives. The meeting sparked interest in building synergies between their procurement programmes and the EIC, leading to the joint ePitching event to explore collaboration and mutual learning.

Alexander Holt on motivation:Holt said the CivTech Alliance had already been collaborating internationally for three years. When Norway proposed linking with the EIC it seemed an obvious fit because the CivTech network has direct access to procurers and practical procurement programmes that companies want to reach. He described the collaboration as an opportunity to match interesting companies with committed buyers.

How companies were selected and what organisers looked for

Organisers ran a selection process aimed at identifying a balanced set of solutions rather than direct competitors. They focused on projects from previous procurement portfolios and from the EIC back-catalogue that fit the label Green PropTech. The selection prioritised scalability, credible technology readiness and the capacity to help public sector organisations meet policy outcomes. The result was nine companies representing a spread of technology types across energy efficiency for buildings and urban systems.

Green PropTech:A loosely defined category that covers digital and physical technologies applied to property and urban infrastructure to improve energy performance, monitoring, retrofitting, management and occupant outcomes. It can include IoT sensors, energy management software, building fabric improvements and financing models that tie payments to measured savings.

What procurers and programmes want from companies

Both Hareide and Holt emphasised that public sector buyers are looking for companies capable of scaling and delivering outcomes. That means robust technology, viable business models and evidence that solutions can integrate with public sector procurement rules. They also stressed the idea of public purpose. Technologies need to deliver benefits relevant to public organisations and not only to commercial customers.

Mindset and skills sought in companies:Organisers look for a scaling trajectory, technical credibility and the ability to help public sector organisations meet outcomes. Companies need to be able to respond to procurement processes and to adapt their commercial terms and delivery models to public sector constraints.

Perceived benefits of working with EIC and CivTech

Hareide and Holt described the relationship as complementary. The EIC has a large portfolio of vetted companies and funding routes. CivTech programmes bring close relationships with procurers and hands-on procurement design experience. Together they can expose companies to procurers and offer follow-up channels such as acceleration programmes. Both organisers suggested the potential to create a clearer pathway where innovators can move from pitching to pilot to procurement and to other EIC or national support programmes.

At the same time both speakers implied that the path from pitch to public contract is not automatic. They pointed to the need to define follow-up processes and to help procurers adapt tendering documents to accommodate novel business models.

Complementary strength	EIC	CivTech / national programmes
Portfolio	Large pool of funded companies and technologies	Smaller cohort but procurement-ready projects
Buyer access	Market credibility and investor networks	Direct relationships with public procurers and regional authorities
Post-pitch support	Business Acceleration Services and investor outreach	Procurement scoping, tender design and pilot facilitation

Event evaluation and immediate outcomes

Organisers reported positive reactions from buyers and described the companies as well prepared. Hareide said he was impressed by the solutions and their fit with procurer needs. Holt praised the event format and follow-up engagement and gave a strong endorsement for the session. Both noted interest in specific companies from facilities managers and procurement officials. Hareide also identified a practical drafting challenge for tenders when a supplier offers payment tied to realised energy savings.

Performance based payment models:Models where the supplier is paid from verified energy savings rather than an upfront fee. These models shift some performance risk to the supplier and require clear measurement, verification and contractual language in the tender that can handle variable payments.

Why that contractual detail matters

Hareide highlighted that procurers will need practical guidance to write tenders that accept non-standard payment terms. Without explicit tender clauses for energy savings payments procurers may inadvertently exclude innovative business models. This is the kind of procurement capacity building that national CivTech programmes aim to deliver but that is not yet widespread. It is also an obstacle to rapid market uptake for many Green PropTech companies.

Broader context from the EIC Business Acceleration Services

The EIC Business Acceleration Services promotes procurement matchmaking as part of a wider set of services for EIC awardees. The EIC reports a range of outcomes across matchmaking, investor outreach and training since 2021. Those outcomes include thousands of one-on-one meetings, dozens of pilot projects and various funding and contract successes. The organisers positioned the ePitching event within these ongoing BAS activities as an opportunity for companies to access public buyers.

EIC BAS metric	Reported figure	Context
One-on-one meetings	Over 20,000	Between EIC awardees and corporates, procurers and investors since 2021
Deals reported	595	Attributed to BAS activities since 2021
Funding raised through investor outreach	EUR 350 million	Reported by EIC
Pilots following matches	38	22 ongoing and 16 completed as reported

These numbers signal scale but they are organisation level metrics. Translating exposure into public procurement contracts remains uneven across sectors and countries. The ePitching pilot aims to test that translation for energy efficiency technologies.

Limitations and next steps

The event organisers see this exercise as a first step. They emphasised the need to map clear post-pitch pathways so companies can move from interest to procurement ready offers and to fit into national or EIC-supported acceleration routes. The practical obstacles they identified include the need for tender language adapted to new payment models, measurement and verification frameworks for energy savings and clarity on subsequent contracting and pilot funding. These are common challenges across EU procurement of innovation and will require sustained attention beyond a single event.

From a critical perspective the pilot is promising as a form of buyer-seller signalling. It does not by itself remove structural barriers to public sector adoption. Evidence of scaled procurement outcomes will be the true test of whether such matchmaking yields sustained market entry for the technologies presented.

How interested companies can follow up

The EIC Business Acceleration Services offers continuing opportunities for EIC awardees to access procurement matchmaking, coaching and international business expansion. The EIC Community Platform lists open calls and events where innovators can apply for support. The organisers encourage firms that participated to use these channels and to engage with national procurement programmes in Scotland and Norway to progress pilot or tender conversations.

Practical next step for innovators:Sign up to the EIC Community Platform, track EIC BAS and CivTech Alliance events, and prepare procurement-ready documentation that addresses payment models, verification methods and public sector integration requirements.

Closing note and disclaimer

The original story flagged that the information is intended for knowledge sharing and should not be treated as the official view of the European Commission. The ePitching pilot demonstrates a pragmatic approach to linking EU-supported companies with public sector procurers. It shows potential but also highlights the familiar gap between exposure and procurement uptake. Moving from promising demonstrations to repeatable procurement pipelines will require clearer pathways, procurement capacity building and explicit contracting innovations.