The EIC Accelerator pilot – previously known as the SME Instrument – carefully selects the best innovators in Europe and bridges the critical investment gap in early-stage innovation, making the companies an ideal investment opportunity for follow-up investment from private entities. The 2019 edition of the Innovation Kitchen report presents the portfolio of successful companies emerging from Europe’s most wanted innovation funding programme for small businesses.
A well-performing portfolio
Since the start of the programme in 2014 the EIC Accelerator pilot – SME Instrument has helped over 4400 companies get a head start in the race to the market. The programme offers up to € 2.5 million in funding, innovation coaching and business acceleration services.
More than two-thirds of the companies have placed their product on the market, since they received support from the EIC pilot. 17 companies float on the stock exchange market, 33 have been acquired and a total of € 3 billion of extra private follow-up investment has been leveraged.
Over 75% of the companies funded have increased their operating revenues. Companies have also grown in size as around 67% of them have increased their headcount since the grant.
How to work with our portfolio
EIC pilot-funded companies are present in all fields of emerging innovation and technology trends. They have been carefully selected by business, investment and innovation experts – only 4-5% make the final cut.
This makes the companies in our portfolio an ideal investment choice. To connect with our companies, investors can join the EIC Community platform, an online platform that gathers 7500 companies, investors, coaches, corporates etc. The community has access to over 40 events per year. Corporates can host their own Corporate Day and meet a handpicked selection of companies they find interesting. As a results of these events, 30-75% of companies enter follow-up discussions and 5-25% seal follow-up deals after Corporate Days.
The 2019 report offers first-hand insights into growth trends and profiles of the companies funded under the EIC pilot. The report presents cumulative data from 2014 to end of 2018.
Get funding from the EIC Accelerator
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.