EIC and EuroQuity-Bpifrance Climate Tech Investor Day: what the Paris pitching forum achieved and what comes next

Brussels, June 7th 2024

Summary

›The EIC and EuroQuity-Bpifrance Climate Tech Investor Day in Paris convened more than 130 participants, including 100 investors, and featured 18 EIC Fund-backed climate tech companies.
›Companies pitched across three verticals: Mobility and Smart City, Environmental Services B2B, and Energy Storage and Efficiency.
›Several founders credited EIC support for grant and equity funding, networking and access to follow-on investors though pitch days remain an early step in the financing journey.
›The EIC is expanding its Business Acceleration Services through an Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme to improve matchmaking and investor readiness.
›The event highlighted promise across a range of climate technologies but underscored the persistent challenges of scaling hardware-heavy cleantech in Europe.

EIC and EuroQuity-Bpifrance Climate Tech Investor Day, Paris

On 7 June 2024 the European Innovation Council and EuroQuity operated by Bpifrance convened an investor day in Paris focused on climate tech. The event gathered more than 130 participants, including around 100 investors, corporates and business partners. Eighteen companies that had previously received EIC support were selected from hundreds of applicants to pitch in front of a 36-person jury drawn from leading venture funds and strategic investors.

Format, participants and selection

The day combined three pitching sessions split by vertical, curated networking slots and an awards ceremony. Organisers positioned the event as both a showcase of EIC-supported innovation and a structured matchmaking exercise designed to put founders face to face with potential funders. Senior representatives from Bpifrance and the European Commission opened and closed the day, while the EIC Board president and EuroQuity head presided over the award segment.

Attendance and jury composition:The forum counted 130 plus attendees, of which about 100 were investors, corporates and business partners. A 36-member jury composed of venture capital and strategic investors evaluated pitches and shortlisted speakers from the EIC awardee pool.

Pitch verticals:Presentations were grouped into three themes: Mobility & Smart City, Environmental Services B2B, and Energy Storage and Efficiency solutions. This structuring reflected common investor segmentation and the practical reality that many climate technologies need vertical-specific offtakes or industrial partnerships to scale.

Featured companies and technologies

Organisers named 18 EIC Fund-supported companies to present. Some are at hardware scale up stages while others are commercialising software or process innovations. The mix demonstrated the EIC’s cross-technology portfolio but also the capital intensity and time horizons that come with industrial and energy-related climate innovations.

Company	Short description	Vertical
AVILOO Battery Diagnostics	Battery diagnostics and health monitoring for cells and packs to support safety and second life.	Energy storage / battery value chain
Deftpower	Platform for e-mobility service providers enabling unified charging experiences and billing, including recent integration with Tesla Superchargers.	Mobility & charging infrastructure
Elonroad	Dynamic charging infrastructure allowing electric vehicles to charge in motion or while parked and solutions for road digitisation.	Mobility & smart city
Enersens	Advanced aerogel thermal barrier products for battery and e-mobility thermal management.	Energy efficiency / battery safety
SABI AGRI	Agri-tech solutions targeting sustainability in agricultural value chains.	Environmental services / agri
RAIKU Packaging	100 percent compostable packaging material designed as a low-footprint substitute for single-use plastics.	Circular packaging / materials
Circu Li-ion	Automated battery disassembly robotics to recover high-value components and enable circular battery supply chains.	Battery recycling / circular economy
CO2BioClean GmbH	Fermentation process that converts industrial CO2 into biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates for bioplastics and textiles.	Carbon to materials / industrial biotech
Energy Robotics	Autonomous robots and AI platform for industrial inspections and asset management.	Environmental services / industrial maintenance
GAFT - Green Air Fuel Technology	Microbial and biochemical route to sustainable aviation fuel using CO2 as feedstock.	Low-carbon fuels / aviation
Sakowin Green Energy	Plasmalysis technology to produce decarbonised hydrogen from methane without oxygen and with a small footprint.	Hydrogen production / energy
SOLAR MATERIALS	Materials and component technologies to improve solar energy performance and durability.	Renewables materials
Water Challenge	Zero liquid discharge wastewater treatment using a patented continuous evaporation and crystallisation process with low energy use.	Environmental services / water
DynamicAirCooling	A waterless refrigeration and air conditioning concept that claims improved efficiency without HFC refrigerants.	Cooling/buildings efficiency
Electrochaea	Power-to-methane platform using methanogenic archaea to convert renewable electricity and CO2 into pipeline-grade methane.	Power-to-X / synthetic fuels
Energy Dome	Large-scale, long duration energy storage technology based on thermodynamic cycles using CO2 as working fluid.	Long duration energy storage
Magneto	Magnetocaloric materials and 3D printed heat exchanger designs for efficient heating and cooling without refrigerants.	Heating and cooling / materials
Ocean Grazer	Wave energy technology to harvest marine energy.	Renewables / marine energy

Founders and EIC support on the ground

Several pitching companies used the event to highlight how EIC programmes helped them progress. Testimony from founders at the event underlined a recurring pattern where an EIC grant jumpstarts technology development and EIC equity or co-investment options help bridge later stages of financing.

CO2BioClean on EIC impact:Fabiana Fantinel, CEO of CO2BioClean, credited the EIC with financial and strategic support that helps smaller companies scale and stressed the networking value of meeting investors directly at the event.

Water Challenge on market readiness:Susana García of Water Challenge said EIC Accelerator funding enabled them to accelerate technology development and build a pilot plant in preparation for market entry. The company positions its system as a zero pollution, zero liquid discharge solution aligned with EU environmental priorities.

Electrochaea on funding mix:Jon Dyar Boles, Electrochaea CIO, described a blended funding path that included EIC grants and equity and highlighted the availability of venture debt for first-of-a-kind projects as an important complementary instrument.

Elonroad on investor reach:Karin Ebbinghaus, CEO of Elonroad, said the event delivered introductions to investors she would not have reached otherwise and increased the company’s visibility among strategic partners.

Who showed up on the investor side

The investor presence reflected a broad pan-European and international roster. Attending funds and corporate venture arms included well known climate and deep-tech investors and strategic corporate venture units. Organisers published an extended list of participants ranging from specialist climate funds to industry corporate investors.

Speakers and jury members came from a wide set of organisations. Event quotes emphasised the quality of dealflow and the value of cross-border investor conversations for identifying co-investments and future follow-on rounds.

Investor reactions:Net Zero Ventures described follow-up conversations with companies aligned to its investment criteria. Representatives from corporate programmes such as Honda Xcelerator praised the organisation and cross-country networking as constructive for partnerships.

EIC ecosystem development and co-investment support

Alongside the investor day the EIC underlined its broader offer to innovators through the Business Acceleration Services. A new Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme aims to create a network of sector-focused partners that help beneficiaries become investor-ready, provide matchmaking and promote co-investment alongside the EIC Fund.

Purpose of the programme:The programme intends to scale the EIC’s ability to prepare startups for investor conversations, connect them with specialised support, and increase co-investment opportunities.

What the event achieved and what it did not

Investor days are useful for visibility, introductions and first technical vetting. They can accelerate warm introductions and surface co-investment interest. Founders cited networking and direct access as tangible benefits. However, a single pitch day does not replace the hard work required to secure term sheets, perform detailed technical and commercial due diligence, or negotiate industrial offtake and permitting for hardware projects.

From a critical funding ecosystem perspective a few recurring obstacles remain. Early stage grants are valuable to derisk prototypes but Europe still faces a follow-on equity gap for capital intensive technologies. Many cleantech projects require multi-stakeholder consortiums, long lead times for industrial validation and regulatory clearances which are not solved by one-off events alone.

Context: why this matters to European climate tech

Europe has established a dense web of public support for innovation that includes EIC grants, public investment banks and targeted funds. The transition to net zero will require scaling technologies across hard-to-abate sectors, making private capital mobilisation and industrial partnerships vital. Events that bring EIC-backed projects into direct contact with investors and corporates help bridge discovery gaps. Yet scaling hardware and industrial technologies needs long term capital, supply chain localisation and demand-side policies that provide credible offtake.

Policy alignment:The technologies on show map to key EU priorities such as the Green Deal, industrial decarbonisation and the circular economy. For policymakers the persistent task is to translate innovation support into scaled industrial projects through procurement, regulatory clarity and targeted investment incentives.

Practical takeaways for founders, investors and policymakers

The investor day produced concrete introductions and raised visibility for participating companies. To convert interest into capital and projects stakeholders should focus on the following next steps.

For founders:Prioritise follow-up meetings with investors who signalled interest, prepare clear datasets on technology readiness levels, unit economics and pilot performance, and use EIC BAS and the Ecosystem Partnerships programme to improve investor readiness and secure industrial pilots.

For investors and corporates:Use curated pitch days to source later diligence leads but expect to invest time and capital into scale validation. Consider staged commitments, pilot offtakes and public private structures to derisk first-of-a-kind industrial projects.

For policymakers and public funders:Addressing Europe’s scale-up gap requires more than matchmaking. Policies that combine demand signals, targeted concessional finance and public procurement will be needed to turn validated prototypes into industrial plants and mass deployment.

Closing note and contact

The EIC and EuroQuity-Bpifrance Investor Day in Paris offered a concentrated snapshot of Europe’s climate tech pipeline supported by the EIC. Attendees reported useful contacts and concrete follow-ups. The event underlined the persistent gap that separates demonstration funding from industrial scale funding and reinforced the rationale for programmes that combine grant support, equity co-investment and targeted public interventions to help technologies cross the valley of death.

For enquiries about the event or the EIC Fund’s investment activities the organisers suggested contacting investments@eicfund.eu.

Disclaimer

This article is a restructured representation of material released by the EIC and EuroQuity-Bpifrance. It aims to retain substantive information while offering additional context. It should not be read as an official statement from the European Commission or Bpifrance.