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EIC-backed startups ExoMatter, Ecolyte and Equal1 take top prizes at 2025 Innovation Radar Prize

Brussels, December 17th 2025
Summary
  • ›ExoMatter won the overall 2025 Innovation Radar Prize for an AI-enriched materials R&D platform and natural language agent.
  • ›Ecolyte took the Climate, Energy and Mobility category with a paper-based, ion-conductive membrane linked to an EIC Pathfinder project.
  • ›Equal1 won the Smart Hardware and Robotics category for a rack-mounted, on-premises quantum computing solution funded by the EIC Accelerator.
  • ›The Innovation Radar Prize highlights EU-funded innovations and connects finalists with investors and ecosystem partners.

EIC-backed startups ExoMatter, Ecolyte and Equal1 take top prizes at 2025 Innovation Radar Prize

Three companies with projects supported by the European Innovation Council were among the winners at the 2025 Innovation Radar Prize, an annual event that spotlights innovations that previously received EU research funding. ExoMatter, a German start-up, won the overall prize for an AI-driven materials research platform and a natural language AI agent called Exira. Ecolyte, an Austrian company and partner in an EIC Pathfinder project, won the Climate, Energy and Mobility category for a paper-based, ion-conductive membrane. Equal1, an EIC Accelerator beneficiary, won the Smart Hardware and Robotics category for a rack-mounted, on-prem quantum computing system that integrates quantum processing units with conventional CPU and GPU workloads.

Winners and their EU project links

ExoMatter, overall winner:ExoMatter was awarded the overall Innovation Radar Prize for the ExoMatter Platform for Materials R and D. The platform offers searchable, AI-enriched datasets to accelerate materials screening and discovery along with Exira, a natural language AI agent that aims to make materials data accessible through conversational queries. ExoMatter is listed as a partner in the EIC Pathfinder project SULPHURREAL, which is pursuing a step change in direct solar conversion of energy into storable chemical products using a carbon-free process. The SULPHURREAL project positions ExoMatter as a data and decision support provider for materials selection and screening in that context.
Ecolyte, winner Climate, Energy and Mobility category:Ecolyte from Austria won the category for an ion-conductive, paper-based membrane that the company says can be used in batteries, fuel cells, electrolysers and water purification systems. Ecolyte is a partner in the EIC Pathfinder project VanillaFlow. VanillaFlow is working to combine artificial intelligence and machine learning with flow battery technology to create integrated energy storage solutions that use renewable feedstocks such as starch and lignocellulosics instead of non-sustainable or critical raw materials.
Equal1, winner Smart Hardware and Robotics category:Equal1, funded by the EIC Accelerator, won for a scalable on-premises quantum-computing technology that integrates quantum processing units with existing CPU and GPU workloads. The company promotes a quantum system-on-chip, or QSoC, approach and a rack-mounted server form factor intended for plug-and-play integration into datacentres and enterprise environments. The Innovation Radar listing and company materials emphasise integration of quantum and classical compute for hybrid workflows.

Event context and selection

The 2025 Innovation Radar Prize was the 11th edition of the scheme that the European Commission runs with the Innovation Radar Bridge initiative. The award event took place at the Unicorn Factory Lisboa in Portugal. Twelve finalists were selected from a larger pool of EU-funded innovators and competed across three prize categories. Each finalist, all of them startups, SMEs or spin-offs that had previously received EU funding, pitched to a panel of investors and entrepreneurs about their technologies and go-to-market plans.

CompanyCountryPrizeEIC linkProject or focus
ExoMatterGermanyOverall winnerPartner in EIC PathfinderAI-enriched materials R and D platform, Exira natural language AI agent; partner in SULPHURREAL
EcolyteAustriaClimate, Energy and MobilityPartner in EIC PathfinderIon-conductive paper-based membrane for flow batteries and electrochemical systems; partner in VanillaFlow
Equal1IrelandSmart Hardware and RoboticsFunded by EIC AcceleratorRack-mounted, on-prem QPU integration and QSoC approach for hybrid quantum-classical compute

Technical summaries and practical caveats

ExoMatter platform and Exira explained:ExoMatter brings together materials datasets augmented with machine learning models and search tools. The company positions Exira as a conversational AI interface to query data, extract candidate materials and accelerate screening. Such platforms can help reduce the time needed to identify promising compounds or compositions, but their value depends on the underlying data quality, reproducibility of reported results, provenance and licensing of datasets, and the models used to enrich the data. Independent validation and open benchmarks are common demands from academic and industrial users before uptake at scale.
Ecolyte membrane and flow battery context:Ecolyte's membrane is a paper-based, ion-conductive material intended to replace membranes and other components that currently rely on scarce or problematic feedstocks. Flow batteries are a stationary storage technology where electroactive solutions are stored in external tanks and pumped through electrochemical cells separated by an ion-selective membrane. The architecture separates power and capacity which is useful for grid applications. Moving membranes from synthetic polymers to renewable, cellulose-based materials could reduce environmental footprint. The key technical questions for Ecolyte will be ionic conductivity, chemical stability over many cycles, selectivity, manufacturing consistency and lifetime under real world operating conditions.
Equal1 and integrated quantum-classical computing:Equal1 promotes a QSoC approach that integrates quantum processing units with classical processors. The company markets a rack-mounted unit intended for datacentre deployment with on-premises operation. Integration of quantum and classical compute can reduce orchestration overhead for hybrid algorithms. At the same time quant um technologies face substantial technical barriers including error rates, error correction overhead, scaling of logical qubits and consistent manufacturing. Many vendors promise rapid scaling but practical, error-corrected quantum advantage for broadly useful applications remains an open engineering and scientific challenge.

Why EU support matters and where questions remain

The European Innovation Council aims to support high risk, high potential innovations across different stages of development. EIC Pathfinder grants fund early stage, pre competitive breakthrough research. EIC Accelerator awards mix grants and equity or blended finance to help companies scale. The Innovation Radar Prize is a visibility mechanism inside the Commission's broader effort to link public research outputs with private investors, national programmes and regional actors. Public recognition can accelerate commercial traction but does not remove technical, regulatory or market risks.

Typical next steps for winners:Winners commonly need to convert visibility into follow-on investment, industrial partnerships and pilots. Technical proof points at commercial scale, supply chain development, standards work and regulatory approvals may be necessary depending on the sector. For materials informatics platforms that rely on data, reproducibility and independent benchmarking are important. For battery components, long term cycling and safety testing are necessary. For quantum hardware vendors, demonstrating error mitigation paths and a roadmap to logical qubits will be under investor scrutiny.

Implications for the European innovation ecosystem

The prize highlights how EU funding feeds a spectrum of innovation from data platforms to hardware components to quantum systems. That breadth feeds the strategic ambition to support sovereign capabilities in critical technologies and to develop pathways from lab research to industrial adoption. At the same time the publicity stage does not eliminate the longer term challenges of scaling manufacturing and attracting private co investment. The EIC's role as an investor and catalyst is to bridge some of these gaps, but market adoption ultimately depends on demonstrable performance, cost competitiveness and regulatory clarity.

Event details and closing notes

The Innovation Radar Prize event brought together twelve finalists who had previously received EU support. Finalists pitched their innovations to investors and entrepreneurs at the Unicorn Factory Lisboa. The prize is intended to increase the visibility of EU-funded innovation and to connect innovators with the wider ecosystem. For winners the immediate opportunity is investor attention and potential follow-on partnerships. For observers the outcome is a reminder that public funding continues to seed diverse technology bets, while the hard work of validation and scaling remains with companies and their partners.

More information about the Innovation Radar and the European Innovation Council is available from the European Commission and EISMEA which manage the programmes that supported the winning projects.

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