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Story 16 April 2020
Public

EIC ePitching with Investors: Seven EIC-backed innovators show their diverse COVID-19 solutions

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Joana Moreira

On 15 April 2020 seven EIC-backed innovators had the chance to show their COVID-19 solutions during a dedicated EIC ePitching session with Investors. This session was hosted after the overwhelming attention and innovative solutions that were being proposed in the EIC Community.

 

Cellply, EpiEndo Pharmacauticals, EpiGuard, OTR3 , Respinova Ltd., Smart Separations and SwissDeCode each had 11 minutes to showcase their ideas: 6 minutes of pitching followed by 5 minutes of Q&A by the jury members consisting out of representatives from  Clinical Research Ventures, Diffusion Capital Partners, the European Investment Bank, Idacapital, Illumina Ventures, and Panakes Partners. At the end of the session all participants had the opportunity to vote for the SME with the best pitch. Smart Separations, represented by Hugo Macedo, was crowned as winner.

 
Smart Separations, a UK-based company, developed a filtration to bring better air quality to everyone. In addition, their coating now has a unique opportunity in cleansing air, surfaces and products to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses, saving thousands of lives.

 

Hugo Macedo: "We at Smart Separations are trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19, not just wait for a vaccine." Regarding the ePitch he commented "These events offer us the opportunity to quickly get the word out there. As a small company it’s difficult to stay ahead of the noise. This event was a great way to put ourselves in front of a large group of investors." Being crowned winner was the cherry on the cake: "I didn’t go into the event expecting to be awarded with best pitch, that exceeded my expectations."

 

 

Diana Saraceni, jury member and co-founder/Managing Partner at Panakes Ventures:

 

"During the past years we always looked at investment opportunities in the infectious diseases-sector Since COVID-19 outbreak we received many more opportunities on the topic and looked at them with renewed attention."

 

 

Nuno Arantes-Oliveira, jury member and partner at Clinical Research Ventures:

 

"I was pleased with the opportunity to look at European companies offering COVID-19 solutions. The quality was very high and that made the vote in the end very hard, I didn’t know who to vote for!" Nuno especially praised the diversity of the different companies: "All companies offered different types of solutions. We had the best of each type of approach. I’ve already contacted one of the companies in order to meet one of these upcoming days."

 

 

Cem Baktoy, managing partner at idacapital, had similar views:

 

"The pitches were very relevant for us. I will be following up with a few of them, I believe we can help each other out". Diana Saraceni added: "We found in general many interesting opportunities in the EIC portfolio, the EIC platform or during networking events and pitches, like this ePitch. The EIC network brings a good contribution to Panakes dealflow generation."

 

 

EIC and COVID-19

In the upcoming weeks the EIC will host several COVID-19 related events. On 24, 25 and 26 of April you can bring your ideas to the table & connect with others to find innovative solutions in health, business, education, social, digital and other spheres during the #EUvsVirus Hackathon. Registration is open until 19 April! In addition, the EIC will host a dedicated COVID-19 ePitching with over 30 private and public procurers from the healthcare sector. Applications are open until 17 April. 

 

Are you looking forward to pitching your ideas to top-class investors? 

We host regular e-Pitches with investors based on your company profiles in ScaleUp EU. Our next few e-pitching events will be focused on eHealth and Mobility. For the latter, applications are still open. SME’s working on Mobility & Transport and looking to launch their next investment round will be invited to apply. Keep an eye on our events page for more information on future events

 

If you are interested in joining, don’t miss out and update your profile information straight away. If you need help, please contact us through our contact page (choose ScaleUp EU: claim access).
 

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.

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