Inside the EIC Soft-landing bootcamp in Silicon Valley

From 19 to 24 May 2024, 15 European Innovation Council backed scaleups working in health and life sciences took part in the EIC Soft-landing programme in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The week combined in-person mentoring from local domain experts, market intelligence, pitch training and curated meetings with investors and corporate partners. The EIC credited the programme's outcomes to close collaboration with experienced local partners and to the convening role of Jillian Manus, Managing Partner at Structure Capital, who served as U.S. Venture Advisor for the EIC.

What the programme offered

The Soft-landing experience was presented as an intensive, hands-on 'entrepreneurial bootcamp' for companies that already have product market traction in Europe and want to test expansion into the U.S. without diverting their main operations. Activities included more than 20 granular training sessions delivered by venture capitalists, IPO founders and enterprise partners. Participants received dedicated pitch coaching, a demo day to present to investors, brand development sessions and warm introductions to relevant stakeholders across the Bay Area ecosystem.

Who organised and who partnered

The EIC ran the Soft-landing week with a mix of public and private partners from the Bay Area. Key partners named for this edition included Stanford University School of Medicine, INSEAD San Francisco Hub, NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center, San Francisco Bay Area Council, and the Commonwealth Club World Affairs. Creative and branding support came from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Programme leadership and investor convening were provided by Jillian Manus through her network in Silicon Valley.

The cohort: who the 15 companies are

The 15 EIC-awarded health and life sciences scaleups selected for this edition were: ABCDx (Spain), Actome GmbH (Germany), Akara (Ireland), Augmedit B.V. (The Netherlands), Bluedrop Medical (Ireland), Celtic Biotech (Ireland), Immunethep (Portugal), INBRAIN Neuroelectronics (Spain), NETRIS Pharma (France), Ligence (Lithuania), Luminate Medical (Ireland), Peptomyc S.L. (Spain), SentryX (The Netherlands), UroMems (France), and Vitalera (Spain). They completed pre-departure training in the weeks leading up to the trip.

What founders did during the week

Highlights included a full day of activity at Stanford School of Medicine with meetings involving the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Stanford Medicine's Catalyst venture fund. Each company presented in a demo day format to an audience of leading venture capitalists and healthcare industry leaders. Companies also took part in a Brand Camp run by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, intensive pitch rehearsals, and numerous one to one introductions. The organisers said the demo day invitation list reached over 250 funds and enterprise partners to maximise exposure.

The playbook Jillian Manus emphasised

Jillian Manus framed the Soft-landing curriculum around a commercialisation playbook she described as 10 essential steps for entering the U.S. market. She also stressed a 'people first' investment mentality common in Silicon Valley and advised founders to sharpen their ability to sell mission and team as well as product.

How this fits the EIC wider offering

The Soft-landing programme evolved from earlier activities such as the EIC International Trade Fairs programme and a pilot Soft-landing and Immersive Programme run between 2023 and 2025. The EIC has consolidated these learnings into a new EIC Global Business Expansion Programme intended to professionalise and scale overseas support for awardees. The International Trade Fairs 3.0 initiative runs in parallel and covers participation in targeted trade shows as a route to commercialisation.

What the programme does not promise and practical caveats

Organisers and partners frame exposure and curated introductions as the core value. That is useful, but it is not a guarantee of commercial success or immediate investment. Converting meetings into partnerships or capital requires rigorous follow up, local legal and regulatory work, and often additional pilots or clinical validation in the United States. In health and life sciences, U.S. regulatory pathways and reimbursement landscapes are complex and vary across devices, diagnostics and therapeutics. Data privacy requirements such as HIPAA, clinical trial regulations, and IP enforcement are practical hurdles that need dedicated teams, budget and local advisors.

A pragmatic checklist for founders after Soft-landing

Founders who participated should expect to complete the following work after the programme: map investor and partner prioritisation, follow up with customised materials and next steps, secure local regulatory and reimbursement advisors, protect critical IP in the U.S., budget for pilot studies or local validation, and prepare for potential term sheet negotiations that may require changes to cap tables or governance. The EIC ecosystem provides further services and follow-up channels but responsibility for execution remains with each company.

Implications for EU innovation policy and strategic goals

Programmes like the EIC Soft-landing help bridge European technical excellence and Silicon Valley capital and networks. They can bolster the global reach of EU innovators and raise visibility for European ventures. At the same time, policymakers should temper expectations. Short immersion programmes can accelerate learning and create opportunities but are not substitutes for sustained, well-resourced internationalisation strategies. If the EIC aims to support EU strategic autonomy in key technologies, those ambitions will require longer term support for clinical validation, manufacturing scale up, standards alignment and regulatory convergence as well as access to deep pools of later stage capital inside Europe.

How to learn more or apply

Information about upcoming EIC missions and calls for the Global Business Expansion Programme and International Trade Fairs 3.0 is available on the EIC Community platform. Interested EIC beneficiaries can find details on selection criteria and open calls there. For specific queries about Soft-landing activities applicants were asked to contact the EIC Community helpdesk selecting the relevant programme category.

Bottom line

The EIC Soft-landing week in Silicon Valley delivered concentrated exposure, practical training and ecosystem introductions for 15 European health scaleups. The programme's strengths are in convening local expertise and forcing founders to sharpen investor messaging and go to market thinking. Those strengths are real and useful. They are not, however, a turnkey route to U.S. market entry. Meaningful progress requires disciplined follow up, regulatory and commercial investment, and realistic expectations about timelines and conversion rates.