EIC Accelerator
In Short
A grant of €500,000 to €2.5 million to develop your innovation, be it demonstration, testing, piloting, scaling up, and more.
Any topic. Any industry focus.
Up to two years of funding.
Entirely non-repayable and no need to give up equity.
That’s the EIC Accelerator.
Is your company an SME?
1.You must employ less than 250 people.
2.Your turnover does not exceed €50 million OR your balance does not exceed €43 million.
3. From EU Member State or HE Associated Country
What is the EIC Accelerator?
Under normal circumstances, the financial burden during the optimisation of a prototype/demonstrator and during the commercialisation & market launch must be borne by a company alone.
This is where the EIC Accelerator comes in.
The EIC Accelerator (formerly known as the EIC Accelerator Phase 2) provides funding for breakthrough ideas with the potential to create new markets or revolutionise existing ones. It is exclusively reserved for SMEs and startups with a strong preference for those with an international market approach.
Are you a dynamic young SME with innovative ideas and disruptive technology? Are you looking to expand into other EU markets? Then the EIC Accelerator may be for you.
Facts about the EIC Accelerator
Grant size range from €500.000 to €2,5 million and cover 70% of total project costs. Blended finance options of up to €15 million are available.
The total budget for 2019–2020 was over €100 million.
Around 6% of applicants reach the interview stage, half of whom are ultimately funded.
Your business must already be registered and you must have a prototype and promising early traction.
You must be prepared to develop your innovation, including testing, demonstration, scaling up, and other preparations for market launch.
The EIC Accelerator has 4 deadlines each year. It typically takes 6–8 weeks to develop and submit an application.
Winners will have access to exclusive Business Acceleration Services.
The EIC Accelerator is one of the EU’s most competitive and demanding funding instruments. It is the premier part of the EU’s mission to support innovative and ambitious small and medium-sized companies across Europe.
It supports companies looking to further develop and introduce prototypes to the European market. Target group are companies with innovations at TRL 5 or TRL 6.
The EIC Accelerator can support your company to scale up if you:
• Develop high risk/high impact innovations;
• Have the potential to create new markets, disrupt existing
ones and contribute to societal innovation;
• Build on scientific discovery, radical
technological breakthroughs (‘deep tech’);
thinking
or
• Require significant funding over a long timeframe before
returns can be generated (‘patient capital’).
Winning the EIC Accelerator
Winning an EIC Accelerator grant is difficult. But not impossible. At Fundtra, we’ve dedicated our careers to helping SMEs across Europe do just that.
The ideal EIC Accelerator candidate will either:
- Be pre-revenue;
- Have generated revenue but not profit;
- Have commercial activity but lack the ability to raise the needed investments to fully realize their potential.
If you’re interested in preparing an EIC Accelerator proposal, don’t waste time! Hire a professional fundraising consulting firm and maximise your chances of success.
Interested in the EIC Accelerator? Get a free assessment of your chances for the EIC Accelerator Phase 2.
EIC Accelerator Deadlines
There are four EIC Accelerator deadlines each year. The next deadlines are:
6 October 2021
Typically, results are sent 3–4 weeks after each deadline. The evaluation can return one of three decisions:
- ‘Go’
- ‘No Go’
- ‘Change into blended finance’
Applications are submitted through the Funding & Tenders Portal.
The EIC Accelerator Application
The EIC application happens in several steps
- Step 1: Short application online:
- Personal information
- Pitch deck (10 slides)
- Video (3 minutes)
- Questionnaire (5 pages)
- If you receive a positive outcome of your short application you will need to to prepare you full application and choose between Open calls or one of the challenges
- Your full application is evaluated by a jury of remote experts
- Face-to-face interviews with the EIC Jury