EIC Summit 2025: what happened, what the EIC promises and what to watch next
- ›The European Innovation Council Summit 2025 gathered 1,400+ participants in Brussels over two days focused on deep tech, business acceleration and investor matchmaking.
- ›The event doubled as a showcase for EIC Business Acceleration Services that offer three pillars of support: Contracts, Contacts and Skills, and highlighted programmes such as InnoMatch, SPIN4EIC, Access+ and InnoNext.
- ›EIC presented its Impact Report 2025 citing over EUR 1 billion invested by the EIC Fund and EUR 2.6 billion mobilised in co-investment since 2020, while flagging the persistent challenge of keeping European scaleups headquartered in Europe.
- ›Speakers ranged from public officials to serial investors and deep-tech founders and corporates, who repeated common themes: the need for ‘smart money’, structured corporate-startup partnerships and better routes from lab to market.
- ›Open questions remain about long term follow‑through, measurable deployment outcomes for public procurement pilots and whether the EIC’s services will address the structural financing gaps for late stage scaling.
EIC Summit 2025: what happened, what the EIC promises and what to watch next
The European Innovation Council Summit 2025 took place at Tour & Taxis in Brussels on 2 and 3 April. The two-day programme combined a beneficiaries' day limited to EIC awardees and a flagship day open to wider stakeholders. Organisers reported more than 1,400 participants, 115 speakers and a strong investor presence. Sessions ranged from technical deep dives and workshops to pitch sessions, award ceremonies and an exhibition of EIC-backed projects.
What the Summit delivered in practice
The Summit mixed public policy discussion with practical, business-facing activities. Highlights included: a stream of workshops for cohort learning on IP, procurement and scaling; 24 EIC Accelerator innovators pitching to investors; the presentation of the EIC Impact Report 2025; and a project exhibition featuring two dozen EIC-backed projects. Top-level speakers included Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and a mix of investors and founders such as Anne Glover and Théau Peronnin.
The beneficiaries' day focused on hands-on workshops for awardees. Day two framed policy debates about expanding the EIC, a fireside chat on Europe as a tech leader and the EU Prize for Women Innovators award. Plenary sessions were recorded and made available for replay on the EIC website.
EIC Business Acceleration Services in the spotlight
A major theme of the Summit was the EIC’s positioning of business acceleration services as the practical companion to grant funding. The EIC presented its Business Acceleration Services, abbreviated as EIC BAS, as a single-entry ecosystem of tailored services that follow awardees beyond grant disbursement. Officials framed BAS as 'smart money' and an integrated offer to help innovators find contracts, partners and skills to commercialise and scale.
Key BAS programmes mentioned at the Summit
Speakers and workshops walked through the suite of BAS offers. Below are the main services explained and what they aim to do.
Numbers the EIC promotes from its BAS and wider activities
The EIC circulated impact figures describing activity since 2021 and, in some cases, since the Pilot phase that began in 2018. Event material and the BAS pages list the following headline metrics. Readers should note these are largely programme figures reported by the EIC and are aggregated across instruments.
| Metric | Figure reported | Scope / caveat |
| One-on-one meetings between EIC awardees and corporates/procurers/investors | +20,000 | Since 2021 across BAS activities |
| Deals reported | 595 | Programme reported deals since 2021 |
| Funds raised via investor outreach | EUR 350 million | Attributed to investor readiness and outreach activities |
| Funds raised by EIC Scaling Club members since joining | EUR 1.2 billion | Scaling Club reported total since April 2024 |
| Turnover from trade fairs | EUR 42 million | Reported by EIC programmes |
| Procurement-related funds raised | EUR 7.7 million | From innovation procurement support; EUR 28.4 million total value in submitted tenders |
| Pilots supported via matchmaking with buyers | 22 ongoing and 16 completed | Supported with EUR 1.93 million since March 2024 |
| Ecosystem partners | +280 partners offering 650 services | Vetted BAS partners |
| Activities to date | +270 activities with more than 5,000 EIC awardees | Workshops, coaching, matchmaking |
| Coaching and training reach | +2,400 awardees and applicants coached since 2021 | Includes accelerator coaching and Tech to Market |
| Women Leadership Programme impact | +90% alumnae reported increase in entrepreneurial skills | Programme-reported survey statistic |
| Procurement supplier capability increase | 98% increase in the capability to submit offers as suppliers | Programme-reported outcome |
| Start-ups created from venture building training | 21 | Reported by Tech to Market and related programmes |
| CEOs onboarded from entrepreneurship training | 16 | Reported by Tech to Market |
These figures are useful to understand scale and activity. What is less visible is conversion quality. For example, a pilot or a procurement tender does not always lead to sustained commercial scale. Several speakers acknowledged that market deployment, large follow-on contracts and late-stage financing remain hard to secure for hardware and capital-intensive deep tech.
Voices from the Summit: corporates, procurers and founders
Panels mixed practical testimony and promotional lines about the EIC’s role. Several soundbites were repeated across sessions.
Yousef Yousef, EIC Board Member and CEO of LG Sonic, described BAS as a business partner and emphasised the importance of aligning market needs with entrepreneurs. Agnieszka Stasiakowska, Head of Sector for EIC BAS at EISMEA, said the 2025 BAS upgrades aim to offer 'smart money' and that three 2024 programmes are now scaling up: Access+, InnoNext and InnoMatch.
Ana Casaca, Global Director of Innovation at Galp, a corporate partner in the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme, said her firm signed contracts with beneficiaries it would not otherwise have known. Galp emphasised the value of structured procurement and testbeds for building trust with startups.
Armand Raudin of SNCF Security Directorate discussed using innovation procurement since 2018 to source SMEs for video analytics pilots. He described procurement as a 'fantastic tool' for filling capability gaps but noted projects are long running and require sustained support.
Speakers from venture capital and the EIC Fund, including Anne Glover and representatives of the EIC Fund and EIB, underlined the Fund’s role in de-risking early equity rounds and mobilising co-investment. They stressed that deeper pools of later-stage capital remain the systemic challenge for keeping European champions headquartered in Europe.
EIC Impact Report 2025: headline claims and a critical read
The EIC used the Summit to present its Impact Report 2025. Key claims in the report are worth listing and interrogating.
| Claim | Figure in EIC Impact Report 2025 | Notes and context |
| EIC Fund direct investments | Over EUR 1 billion invested in 272 companies | EIC Fund set up in 2020 to make equity investments alongside grants |
| Additional investment mobilised | EUR 2.6 billion co-investment since launch | Report cites roughly EUR 3 of additional private investment per euro of EIC equity |
| EIC-supported startups | 706 start-ups under Horizon Europe 2021-24 | Pilot phase included more companies from 2018-2020 |
| Innovations from Pathfinder and Transition | Over 1,350 unique innovations | Includes outputs that are market creating or target emerging markets |
| Growth after EIC support | Average ~50% employment and revenue growth in two years | This is an average and will mask wide dispersion across sectors and firms |
| Centaur companies | 70+ firms valued above EUR 100 million; six above EUR 500 million | Valuation yardsticks and the time horizon for exits vary |
| Trusted Investor Network | 100+ investors representing over EUR 100 billion AUM | A network to catalyse co-investment but not a binding capital commitment |
The report paints strong progress. The caveats are familiar. Public programmes can and do help de-risk early rounds. They cannot on their own build liquid late-stage capital markets or change sector economics where global competition and scale advantages favour a few major hubs. The EIC’s instruments, such as STEP and the Trusted Investor Network, are intended to address some of those gaps but will need time and external private partners to deliver the large rounds that keep companies rooted in Europe.
Practical next steps for beneficiaries and stakeholders
The Summit reiterated the practical routes through which innovators can access EIC BAS. These are the operational steps and some caveats.
Beneficiaries should prioritise three tasks. First, decide which BAS pillar matters most now: do you need customers, talent or investor readiness. Second, align the request to the programme that best fits that need. Third, remember that these services reduce friction but do not substitute for hard commercial validation or large industrial partnerships that take time and resources.
Where to be sceptical and what to watch next
The Summit communicated momentum. The critical questions for policymakers and the ecosystem are implementation and quality of outcomes over time.
Watch for the following indicators in the next 12 to 24 months: conversion rates from pilots to procurement contracts, the scale of follow-on private rounds that remain in Europe, follow-through on STEP fund allocations and the practical outcomes of Access+ grants. Also watch whether the Trusted Investor Network transitions from an engagement forum into demonstrable co-investment commitments on meaningful ticket sizes.
Selected technical and policy concepts explained
Examples from the Summit: projects, pilots and corporate days
The Summit showcased a wide range of projects across sectors. The exhibition included 23 EIC-backed projects with examples such as a 3D printed degradable breast implant, microLED manufacturing companies, hydrogen valorisation start-ups and quantum computing firms. Corporate days highlighted tangible pilot agreements such as Galp working with solar and hydrogen innovators and SNCF’s ongoing video analytics pilots.
Practical takeaway for innovators, investors and policymakers
For innovators: identify the BAS service that best addresses your immediate barrier. Use coaching to sharpen investor narratives and use procurement pilots to secure early revenues, but do not expect pilots alone to produce scale.
For investors: the EIC is a signal of quality and a deal sourcer. Co-investing early with EIC-backed teams can open attractive opportunities. But investors should insist on commercial roadmaps and traction beyond awards and pilots.
For policymakers: the Summit reinforced the EIC’s value as an instrument for de-risking early deep tech. The remaining policy challenge is to broaden late-stage financing, make public procurement genuinely deployment-oriented and align member-state tools to keep scaleups in Europe.
Where to find materials and next steps
Plenary recordings are available on the EIC Summit website. Workshop materials and additional BAS resources can be found on the EIC Community Platform. Open calls such as Access+ and InnoMatch were presented during the Summit. Interested parties should consult the EIC Community Portal for application details and deadlines.
Bottom line
The EIC Summit 2025 showed a maturing ecosystem in which grant funding, targeted acceleration services and an early-stage equity arm co-exist. The EIC’s reported impact to date is substantial in terms of activity and early funding leverage. The crucial test will be whether the EIC can convert pilots into procurement wins and early rounds into deep, Europe-anchored scaleups. The next 24 months will show whether the 'smart money' narrative translates into systemic change for late-stage financing and industrial deployment.