EIC Multi-Corporate Day links 26 EIC-backed deep tech teams with P&G, Air Liquide, Chiesi, Merck and Nestlé
- ›On 8 9 October 2025 the EIC ran a Multi-Corporate Day in Brussels that matched 26 EIC-backed start ups with senior teams from P&G, Air Liquide, Chiesi, Merck and Nestlé.
- ›Selected companies spanned biotech, human-relevant models, AI in industrial operations, biodiversity monitoring and circular materials, and pitched after expert coaching and proposal reviews.
- ›The activity is part of the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme and included structured preparation, curated one-to-one meetings and a commitment to post-event follow up to scope trials and pilots.
- ›Organisers and corporates framed the exercise as targeted business acceleration, while founders reported concrete operational feedback and the prospect of focused tests and pilots.
- ›Key challenges remain for corporate-startup collaborations including procurement cycles, regulatory validation, and converting pilots into scalable contracts.
EIC Multi-Corporate Day: curated matchmaking between deep tech innovators and corporate buyers
On 8 and 9 October 2025 the European Innovation Council convened a Multi-Corporate Day in Brussels that brought 26 EIC-backed start ups together with decision makers from five major corporate partners: Procter & Gamble, Air Liquide, Chiesi Group, Merck Group and Nestlé. The event paired structured, expert-led preparation and proposal reviews with one-on-one meetings to explore pilots, co development projects and strategic partnerships. The activity was delivered under the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme as a business acceleration offer, with curated access to senior corporate stakeholders and explicit post event follow up to translate conversations into scoped trials.
Why the event matters, and what it offered
The organisers placed emphasis on practical decision making. Selected founders received targeted coaching and proposal feedback from external experts engaged by the EIC, then pitched to corporate technical and commercial teams. Meetings were meant to evaluate fit against concrete operational criteria such as installation constraints, data formats, key performance indicators and trial design. The EIC described the day as part of a programme intended to shorten the route from scouting to scoped pilots and commercial trials for EIC-backed scale ups.
Who pitched, and what they pitched
The 26 selected innovators presented solutions across multiple industrial and commercial needs. Their technologies ranged from biosciences intended to reduce animal testing and accelerate drug development to industrial AI for predictive maintenance and novel materials for circular packaging. Below is a company by company view to help corporate teams and other readers see the tactical potential for pilots or procurement.
| Company | Country | What they offer | Potential corporate application |
| 3BEE | Italy | Biodiversity monitoring combining geospatial analytics and on site IoT bioacoustics to establish baselines and report against CSRD/ESRS, TNFD and SBTN | Supply chain biodiversity reporting, site level nature metrics, CSRD compliance |
| 4DCELL | France | SmartHeart® micro physiological cardiac model using mature iPSC cardiomyocytes on an Organ in a well® high throughput platform | Pre clinical cardiotoxicity and efficacy testing for pharma and safety assessment for consumer health |
| AKITA by FINNADVANCE | Finland | Single molecule proteogenomic platform using Affinity Mediated Transport amplification for ultrasensitive, multiplex detection | Diagnostics for neonatal and respiratory monitoring, point of care biomarker detection |
| BAC3GEL | Portugal | 3D in vitro mucus models and Bac3Beads® prebiotic carriers that replicate native mucosal environments | Formulation screening for gut, lung and cervico vaginal systems, product de risking and reduction of animal testing |
| BEO THERAPEUTICS | Denmark | Microbiome based nutrition, BEO 001 consortium targeting urate reduction as adjunct to GLP 1 therapy | Adjunct nutritional therapies for metabolic waste disorders, chronic disease management |
| C2CAT | Netherlands | AI assisted catalyst and materials design using the Dexcat platform for predictive modelling and generative engineering | Catalyst discovery and optimisation for green hydrogen, electrolysis and chemical processes |
| GENOME BIOLOGICS | Germany | TrueCardium® human cardiac organoids with vascular networks and AI tools for efficacy and safety assessment | Cardiac safety testing in drug R D, reduce reliance on animal models |
| GOLANA COMPUTING | France | Plug and play industrial monitoring capturing sub millisecond vibration, current and magnetic signals with early warning analytics | Predictive maintenance, energy optimisation, reduced downtime in manufacturing |
| HBOX THERAPIES | Germany | MiRA miniaturised artificial lung for extracorporeal oxygenation and CO2 removal, engineered for simpler setup | Critical care respiratory support pilots, ICU workflow integration and device evaluation |
| HOLLOID | Austria | In line holographic microscopy for continuous 3D monitoring of transparent fluids, detecting rare events without sampling | Bioprocess contamination detection, continuous quality monitoring in food and pharma production |
| INBIOSE | Belgium | Fermentation produced human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) for infant and adult nutrition | Ingredient sourcing for nutrition portfolios, functional food and supplementation |
| MOVEUP | Belgium | Clinically validated digital health platform for adherence, remote monitoring and automated triage with predictive triggers | Patient support programmes, remote care pathways and real world evidence generation |
| NEURON SOUNDWARE | Czech Republic | Edge AI acoustic monitoring for predictive maintenance and safety in challenging industrial environments | Compressor and pump monitoring, factory safety and condition based maintenance |
| NEXTMOL | Spain | Computational lab for sustainable molecules using molecular modelling and machine learning to design polymers and surfactants | Sustainable material discovery for formulations, virtual R D screening to shorten development cycles |
| O11 BIOMEDICAL | Germany | Ingestible CO2 capturing microparticles designed to lower hypercapnia in COPD by binding CO2 in the gut | Novel therapy evaluation for respiratory disease management, early human studies |
| ORIGIN by OCEAN | Finland | Converts invasive Sargassum and other algae into biodegradable bioactives and biopolymers like OCEANTHIX and OCEANBOOST | Fossil free ingredients for cosmetics, personal care and foods, circular sourcing |
| PROCESS GENIUS | Finland | 3D digital twin display layer unifying fragmented operational data via APIs for context rich situational awareness | Operations dashboards, decision support, reduce dashboard overload across plants |
| RECATALYST | Slovenia | Nanotechnology platform producing platinum lean electrocatalysts for fuel cells and electrolysers | Drop in replacement for catalysts to cut stack costs in green hydrogen production and fuel cells |
| RESPIQ | Netherlands | Gas sensing hardware and AI platform combining microelectronics, photonics and deep learning for medical and industrial applications | COPD monitoring, breath biomarker detection, ripeness and leak detection in supply chains |
| ROKA FURADADA | Spain | Biotech derived actives such as ROKA Smart UV® PvB 360 and ROKA Cirkle® Sotabosk offering photo adaptive UVA protection and upcycled lignin multifunctionals | Novel actives for personal care and sun care formulations, sustainability claims |
| SEQUENTIA BIOTECH | Spain | GAIA platform turning omics into actionable biodiversity and safety analytics for end to end monitoring from soil to product | Supplier monitoring, regenerative sourcing, standardised ESG reporting |
| SOLMEYEA | Greece | Microalgae platform converting industrial CO2 into carbon negative MEY™ protein and biomass for nutrition and bio based packaging | Low carbon ingredients, C14 aware sourcing, CO2 circularity pilots |
| SPARXELL UK | United Kingdom | Cellulose based colourants that replace dyes, metals and minerals for recyclable pigments | Packaging and product colouration that reduces emissions and meets recyclability targets |
| SYMCEL SVERIGE | Sweden | Isothermal microcalorimetry platform detecting viable microbes across matrices within hours at <5 CFU sensitivity | Faster release testing, reduced hold times and improved product safety in pharma and food |
| VERIDI TECHNOLOGIES | Netherlands | AI enabled, microscopy based soil biodiversity diagnostics with a focus on nematodes and integration into agronomic models | Supplier level soil diagnostics, regenerative agriculture decision support and reporting |
| VISPERA | Turkey | Retail visual intelligence capturing shelf images and analysing availability, pricing and planogram compliance in near real time | Retail execution, shelf compliance, price monitoring and launch tracking for FMCG |
Selected technologies and what they mean in plain terms
Immediate business value and corporate perspectives
Founders reported that the day delivered more than visibility. The structured preparation and access to decision makers gave them tactical input about deployment constraints, data integration needs and performance indicators that would matter in pilots. Solmeyea's founder explained how conversations across Nestlé and others narrowed down factors such as installation constraints, data formats and KPIs for reduced sampling errors and quicker product release. Corporates praised the efficiency of focused scouting and said the event yielded promising leads for pilot collaborations.
Lieven Deketele, R D Director Open Innovation at Procter and Gamble, said the Multi Corporate Day was an accelerator for unmet needs across consumer insights, materials development and manufacturing. He noted that pre event needs collection and targeted matchmaking produced several promising leads for pilot collaborations, and he judged the potential value to justify the effort.
Agnieszka Stasiakowska, Head of Sector of EIC Business Acceleration Services Global Offer at the EIC, highlighted the strategic intent to incentivise more European corporations to collaborate with EIC backed start ups in order to strengthen the resilience of the European economy, and said the event focused on hands on use cases, technical experts and well defined next steps to move pilots forward.
A pragmatic view, and the common hurdles to watch
Corporate days like this are useful early stage mechanisms to create mutual awareness and to scope trials. They are not a substitute for the hard work that follows acceptance of a pilot. Common sticking points include procurement and contracting, alignment to corporate IT and data schemas, regulatory and quality assurance demands for medical and food ingredients, and the economics of scaling small scale proofs to global roll out. Events deliver leads and technical alignment but converting that into repeatable business requires defined KPIs, commercial terms, and a willingness from both sides to underwrite early risk.
What comes next and how to follow progress
The organisers stressed that follow up would prioritise prompt sharing of documentation and the development of well defined trials where the fit is most promising. The EIC Business Acceleration Services will support post event matchmaking and follow up to convert discussions into scoped pilots or collaborations. For founders, the next steps are to translate meeting feedback into trial proposals, pin down budgets and timelines, and to address integration and compliance queries raised by the corporate teams.
For corporates the task is to translate interest into internal directives for procurement and technical owners who will sponsor trials and to ensure the legal, safety and IP checkpoints are cleared in a timely manner. The history of corporate engagement suggests that single in person events can generate leads but a sustained programme with follow up multiplies the chance of conversion.
Context for European innovation policy and corporate engagement
The EIC Corporate Partnership Programme sits inside the EIC Business Acceleration Services and aims to make it easier for EU funded innovators to reach customers and pilots in large firms. Corporates that join the programme are expected to have an open innovation mindset and the operational reach to pilot novel technologies across business lines. The EIC uses the Corporate Day model to bridge the typical discovery gap where startups can be hard to find and corporates find startup engagement fragmented.
The European policy context pushes corporations toward supplier sustainability and circularity reporting under rules such as CSRD and sector specific standards. That alignment makes partnerships around biodiversity monitoring, alternative ingredients, CO2 circularity and digital traceability topical for both buyers and startups. The programme also sits alongside other EIC instruments such as equity and blended finance supports that can help with investment risk sharing.
Bottom line and sober assessment
The Multi Corporate Day was a concentrated matchmaking exercise that surfaced operationally relevant insights for both startups and corporates. The careful preparation and expert reviews improved the quality of conversations and increased the likelihood that meetings will lead to trials. That said, the event is an early step not an outcome. The practical value will be judged by the speed and rigour of the follow up, the readiness of corporates to commit budget to realistic pilots and the founders ability to meet regulatory and integration requirements. Those are the real tests that determine whether a corporate day results in a commercial partnership or a polite note on a CRM record.
How to engage
EIC backed teams interested in future corporate match making and corporates wishing to join the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme can apply via the EIC Business Acceleration Services. The programme is explicitly looking for corporates with an open innovation culture and the operational capacity to pilot startup solutions. The EIC also publishes updates on open calls and upcoming corporate days through its BAS newsletter.