Seven companies advanced to EIC Fund for major STEP Scale Up investments, subject to due diligence

The European Innovation Council and the European Commission published the first cohort of companies that cleared the evaluation phase of the STEP Scale Up call. These companies will now be considered by the EIC Fund for equity-style investments intended to close a financing gap for late stage deep tech scaling in Europe. Investment decisions by the EIC Fund are not automatic. They remain conditional on standard investment procedures including further due diligence and negotiation with potential co-investors.

What STEP Scale Up is aiming to do

This selection round in numbers and process

In the first STEP Scale Up batch 34 proposals were submitted. Independent experts invited 22 companies to interviews. After evaluation, seven companies met all criteria and will be put forward to the EIC Fund for investment decisions subject to due diligence. Four other high quality applicants received the STEP Seal but were not advanced for investment in this round due to budget constraints.

Companies put forward for EIC Fund decisions

The seven companies cover a range of strategic technologies for Europe. The EIC announcement lists them with brief descriptions. Below is a consolidated table that captures the firms, their country of registration and the technology focus disclosed by the EIC.

Companies given STEP Seal but not advanced for investment in this round

Four additional companies were awarded the STEP Seal. The Seal is a quality label meant to help firms access alternative funding and business acceleration services. Those firms are Leyden Labs, Multiverse Computing, NETRIS Pharma and Prométhée Earth Intelligence.

What each selected company is pitching and what to watch for

Axelera AI (Netherlands)

Axelera develops AI acceleration chips and inference hardware targeting edge and datacenter use cases. The company markets Metis AIPUs and related accelerator cards and SDK tooling for deploying neural networks at lower power and cost than GPUs, claiming high TOPS performance on computer vision and LLM inference. The technology addresses an acute need for efficient inference outside large cloud providers. Watch items include adoption in partner systems, silicon supply and benchmarking transparency. Marketing performance claims should be validated by independent benchmarks and by real customer deployments.

Focused Energy (Germany)

Focused Energy supplies engineered fuel capsules for inertial confinement laser fusion. The firm promotes 'Pearl' fuel derived from seawater and lithium and positions itself in the laser fusion supply chain. Statements about fusion ignition and net gain referenced on company pages echo milestones achieved in US national facilities. For investors, the key risks are the long and uncertain commercial path to utility scale fusion, uncertainty over which reactor architecture will be commercialised and the long lead times for marketable power plants. Any public funding push into the fusion supply chain should be assessed against realistic commercialization timelines.

Infinite Orbits (France)

Infinite Orbits claims to be Europe’s first commercial provider of autonomous in-orbit servicing and AI powered space surveillance, with a focus on geostationary mission profiles including close inspection. The space services market is expanding, but the business will need robust regulatory, insurance and customer contracting models. Technical autonomy, safety cases and launch and operations costs remain central to commercial viability.

IQM Finland (Finland)

IQM is a European quantum hardware company working on superconducting qubit systems. The EIC announcement cites a production milestone of 30 quantum computers and a roadmap to reach 1 million qubits by 2033. That roadmap is extremely ambitious. It is important to distinguish between physical qubits and fault tolerant logical qubits. Scaling to large numbers of physical qubits is only one part of the challenge. Error rates, control electronics, cryogenics, and software integration are equally limiting factors. Investors should probe the technical assumptions behind such qubit count targets and the timeline to error corrected systems that can deliver industrial advantage.

Pasqal (France)

Pasqal develops neutral atom quantum processors and a full stack including software and cloud access. The company has raised public and private funding and positions itself for scientific simulations and quantum enhanced algorithms. Neutral atom platforms have advantages for certain scaling strategies, but competition among qubit technologies remains intense. Commercial traction will depend on customers finding domain specific workloads where Pasqal yields a clear advantage.

Xeltis (Netherlands)

Xeltis develops regenerative vascular implants based on an endogenous tissue restoration platform. The company says its technology is built on polymer chemistry associated with Nobel prize winning work and aims to reduce failure modes common to synthetic implants by encouraging natural tissue regrowth. Clinical trial outcomes, regulatory approvals and reproducible long term results will determine how broadly the technology can displace incumbents in vascular surgery.

Zadient Technologies (France)

Zadient produces ultra-pure silicon carbide source material and growth technology to boost yields for large diameter SiC crystals and wafer production. SiC is a strategic material for power electronics used in EV inverters and renewable energy systems. Europe has limited domestic supply of SiC wafers today, so domestic scale up would address supply chain resilience. Key execution risks include achieving consistent crystal yields at scale, capital intensity of fabs, and competition from established Asian suppliers.

STEP Seal and firms not advanced in this round

Four companies judged excellent but not advanced for investment in this round due to STEP budget constraints received the STEP Seal. The Seal is a quality label intended to facilitate access to alternative or complementary funding and to EIC Business Acceleration Services. The Seal recipients named were Leyden Labs, Multiverse Computing, NETRIS Pharma and Prométhée Earth Intelligence. The Seal does not guarantee EIC Fund investment.

Funding mechanics and co-investment ambitions

Leveraging additional capital is central to the instrument. The EIC Fund typically conducts due diligence and may work with investment advisers, co-investors and other partners. A referral to the EIC Fund does not equal final allocation of funds. Some shortlisted projects will not proceed to investment depending on due diligence outcomes and market conditions.

Implications, risks and open questions

The STEP Scale Up approach tries to fill a real market need in Europe for larger growth rounds for strategic technologies. Publicly backed direct investments can help build European industrial capacity and retain strategic capabilities. However, there are unresolved questions and risks that merit scrutiny.

First, many of the technologies named are capital intensive and have long development horizons. Fusion fuel supply, quantum hardware scale up and SiC wafer plants require multiyear investment before revenue profiles become predictable. Second, the success metric of leveraging private co-investment depends on investor appetite. Europe has been building later stage capital but remains behind the United States in large late stage deep tech pools. Third, claims of performance or roadmaps from startups should be independently validated during due diligence. Finally, governance and conflict of interest arrangements must be clear when public money co-invests alongside private funds.

Next steps and what to watch

The seven referred companies will enter the EIC Fund’s investment evaluation and due diligence process. That process may take several months and could lead to investment, conditional offers, or declines. The STEP Scale Up call remains open and is evaluated quarterly. Watch for future evaluation outcomes, the EIC Fund’s published investment decisions, and whether the announced budget growth to €900 million for 2025 to 2027 materialises and is matched with co-investor commitments.

Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva called the STEP Scale Up scheme a 'game-changer' for high-growth businesses and highlighted networks and expert guidance. The statement signals political backing but does not change the commercial and technical uncertainty each candidate must still overcome to secure investment and scale.

Sources and further reading

Primary source material for this article is the European Innovation Council announcement dated 3 April 2025. Company descriptions and technical claims were cross referenced against the firms' public materials. Readers should consult the EIC Fund investment guidelines and STEP documentation for governance, eligibility, and procedural details.