EIC connects Opella with six EIC-backed start-ups to pursue consumer health innovations
- ›On 12 and 13 November 2025 the European Innovation Council organised a Corporate Day matching Opella with six EIC-backed start-ups working on microbiome, diagnostics, weight-management and traceability.
- ›Start-ups were pre-vetted and coached by the EIC and held tailored one-to-one meetings with Opella R&D and senior decision makers to explore pilots, co-development and partnerships.
- ›Participants included Bac3Gel, BOYDSense, Empros Pharma, NIUM, ScanTrust and Sequentia Biotech, each presenting technologies at varying readiness and regulatory status.
- ›The activity sits under the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme and the EIC Business Acceleration Services which offer follow-up support to convert conversations into pilots and deals.
- ›Several claims by participants and organisers are promising but require scrutiny on clinical validation, regulatory paths, scaling and commercial fit.
EIC-organised Corporate Day links Opella with EIC-backed innovators for consumer health
On 12 and 13 November 2025 the European Innovation Council brought global consumer healthcare company Opella together with six EIC-backed start-ups to accelerate innovations for self care and consumer health. The two-day activity combined curated pitches with targeted one-to-one meetings between start-up teams and Opella technical and commercial decision makers. The EIC prepared the selected companies through targeted coaching and business proposal reviews. The stated goals were to explore pilots, co-development projects and strategic partnerships that could move technologies from lab to shelf or deployed consumer service.
Who took part
| Company | Country | Technology focus | Stage or headline claim |
| BAC3GEL | Portugal | Prebiotic platform based on Gut3Beads to selectively promote beneficial bacteria and support digestive, immune and metabolic health | Productised substrate compatible with probiotics and bioactives; consumer-friendly formats |
| BOYDSense | France | Breath-based diagnostic platform for metabolic monitoring using exhaled biomarkers | Four clinical trials reported; positioned for at-home deployment in weight management and diabetes monitoring |
| EMPROS Pharma | Sweden | Oral pharmaceutical EMP16 for long-term weight maintenance, positioned to complement GLP-1 therapies | EMP16 in phase II clinical trials; pitched on safety and affordability |
| NIUM | Luxembourg | Compact gut-on-a-chip system (IMAT) to emulate human gastrointestinal tract for microbiome testing | Patented platform for reproducible, predictive testing and accelerated product development |
| ScanTrust | Netherlands | Secure QR code and digital identity platform for product authentication, traceability and consumer engagement | Supports smart packaging and regulatory compliance including Digital Product Passports |
| Sequentia Biotech | Spain | Bioinformatics and omics data translation platform, MICK for microbiome analysis integration into clinical practice | Reported 75% cost reduction for microbiome analysis workflows |
Technical concepts explained
What happened during the Corporate Day
The EIC selected six EIC-backed companies together with Opella. Selection was carried out with input from Opella and included coaching sessions and business proposal reviews by EIC Business Acceleration Services. Each start-up gave a short presentation and then participated in structured one-to-one meetings with Opella senior decision makers and R&D staff. The format aimed to fast-forward evaluation from discovery to practical integration planning and to identify immediate next steps such as pilot design, co-development work or commercial trials.
Victoria Hernandez Valcarcel, EIC ambassador and Board Member, framed the event as part of a longer term objective to link deep tech innovators with established companies in health. She stressed selection rigor and technical focus and said she was confident discussions would lead to tangible collaborations.
Opella described the day as delivering accelerated access to pre-vetted technologies aligned to its priorities in microbiome, diagnostics, bioactives and smart packaging. Josephine Fubara, Chief Science Officer at Opella, said the meeting allowed rapid movement from discovery towards meaningful evaluation and integration planning and that the showcased solutions could feed the company product pipeline.
Start-up participants reported practical benefits. Sebastião van Uden, CEO of BAC3GEL said the event produced energising, constructive conversations about formulation and regulatory challenges and seeded ideas for collaboration. Ben Delhey, CEO of BOYDSense, said access to Opella technical experts accelerated market positioning and planning in ways that could have taken months using traditional outreach.
EIC Corporate Partnership Programme and post-event support
The activity was delivered under the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme, a component of EIC Business Acceleration Services that organises Corporate Days and related matchmaking initiatives. The EIC says the Corporate Partnership Programme has run roughly 80 initiatives since 2017 involving over 120 corporate partners and more than 1,200 EIC-funded start-ups and scaleups and 2,500 corporate representatives. The programme offers curated scouting, tailored coaching, matchmaking and post-activity follow-up intended to convert meetings into pilots and commercial deals.
| Metric | Figure (EIC reported) |
| Corporate Partnership Programme initiatives since 2017 | About 80 |
| Corporate partners involved | +120 |
| EIC-backed start-ups and scaleups participating | ~1,200 |
| Corporate high-level representatives engaged | +2,500 |
A cautious reading of claims and limits
The Corporate Day format efficiently surfaces technologies of interest to a corporate buyer and can compress months of early conversations into days. That said, several validation and scale challenges remain before the start-ups' claims translate into consumer products at scale. Clinical validation for diagnostics and therapeutics requires multi-stage trials and regulatory approval. For example EMP16 is in phase II which is necessary but not sufficient for approval and reimbursement. BOYDSense reports four clinical trials but breath diagnostics face a difficult path to meet clinical accuracy and regulatory device standards across populations and real world conditions. Microbiome modulation and prebiotic platforms need robust functional endpoints rather than surrogate markers to demonstrate consumer benefit.
Operational hurdles are also significant. Pilots in consumer healthcare require supply chain integration, quality management, labelling and possibly product registration. Secure QR and digital passport solutions have to integrate with packaging operations and retailer systems and must meet evolving EU regulatory requirements for Digital Product Passports. Claims of cost reduction from bioinformatics pipelines are promising but depend on dataset scale, laboratory workflows and local pricing for sequencing and analysis services.
Why events like this matter for the EU innovation ecosystem
The EIC Corporate Partnership Programme plays a bridging role between public support and private adoption. For deep tech and regulated health products the pathway to market is long and capital intensive. Corporate partners can provide validation environments, distribution channels and regulatory experience that start-ups lack. The EIC can amplify those connections because its portfolio collects companies across the EU and beyond and it can deploy coaching, investor introductions and procurement pathways that de-risk corporate engagement.
However, systemic frictions remain. Corporates need clear internal processes to run fast pilots and procurement that accept early-stage risk. Start-ups need to demonstrate reproducible evidence and robust GMP quality where relevant. Public programmes that sponsor matchmaking must follow through with measurable support to convert meetings into commercial experiments. Otherwise the activities risk becoming visibility exercises rather than business development drivers.
Next steps and what to watch
The immediate outcome to monitor is whether the discussions progress to concrete pilots or co-development agreements. For diagnostics and therapeutics, watch trial protocols, regulatory filings and timelines. For nutraceuticals and microbiome-enabled formulations, look for stability data, consumer safety assessments and pilot consumer studies. For packaging and traceability, follow pilot rollouts and integration with retailer systems or compliance with Digital Product Passport obligations.
Practical advice for start-ups and corporates engaging in similar programmes
Start-ups should come prepared with clear asks, pilot designs and measurable success criteria and be ready to adapt to corporate procurement timing. Corporates should define budget envelopes for pilots, assign rapid decision makers and outline regulatory and quality expectations in advance. Both sides benefit from early legal and IP clarity and from realistic milestone-based pilots that generate data for the next funding or procurement decision.
The Opella Corporate Day organised by the EIC is an example of an increasingly common format that aims to compress early-stage partnering. It can accelerate discovery and alignment but converting dialogue into sustained product launches will require clinical, regulatory and operational work that remains difficult and resource intensive.