Raising capital and attracting investors are some of the key concerns of many of our EIC beneficiaries. On one side, they must consider how to approach investors, and on the other how to be best prepared to meet them. With the EIC Community Talk: Ask me anything about Investors on 26 June 2020, 30 EIC-beneficiaries had the chance to receive insights from peers and have an in-depth discussion regarding investment rounds.
Luis Navarro, from Zeleros Hyperloop, and Raycho Rachev, from Endurosat, were two of the EIC-beneficiaries who were invited to share their experiences with attracting investors. The Spanish start-up Zeleros just recently closed of a € 7 million funding round, while Bulgaria’s Endurosat obtained 362.000 USD from a national fund. Luis, who attended several EIC-events before, including the EIC ePitching with Investors, was glad to share his experiences:
“I felt like this would be something that I would have liked to hear when I was just getting started, that was why I decided to attend as a speaker.”
During the presentation, Luis went into detail how his investment round took off, while also highlighting some key points for the attendees to take into account while raising investments: “Having also been close to the investor-side before, I know how important it is to know your audience. Start-ups need to put themselves in the shoes of the investors, which can be challenging. Put time in your research and find out what investors want”. Another key tip to be taken into account, is “to be bold and optimistic in assessing your needs”. According to Luis many start-ups could be more pro-active and optimistic when talking about their innovations: “Investors are fully into ‘the game’. They want to find that big fish, the unicorn. If you don’t look, sound or smell like a unicorn, it’s very hard to have a proper match with them. Tune your pitch, add some flavour and be bold.”
Many of the participating start-ups were recently awarded with the EIC grants. For Kobi Cohen, CFO of Growponics, the EIC-grant meant “staying in the race” even during COVID-19: “We are a high risk, high potential company, which can be challenging when raising funds”. For Joan Fitzpatrick, whose company KiteMedical is active in the paediatric field, also recently joined the EIC-programme: “In our field it’s difficult to get investors. They think the paediatric market is small, so that’s challenging.” Despite doing a lot of research into suitable investors, she valued her participation in the event:
“Everyday is a school day. I want to use all of the resources provided by the EIC. Listening to two EIC-beneficiaries who recently closed investment rounds was very useful.”
In addition to feedback provided by guest-speakers, both Kobi and Joan were excited to learn more about ScaleUpEU, noting that “they will both upload their profile as soon as possible”. ScaleUp EU is the EIC’s automatic match-making service that facilitates partnerships between start-ups and investors based on their profiles. This service is open exclusively to EIC-funded companies, and the platform was also presented during the Community Talk, with some tips and tricks to make the most of it.
Are you interested in receiving tailored business trainings, Q&A-sessions and further peer-to-peer events? The Community Events and Trainings are a regular part of the European Innovation Council Business Acceleration Services. Keep your eyes on our EIC Community and Calendar for further details and future events!
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.