The Financial Times has just released the 2025 edition of its Europe's Leading Start-Up Hubs ranking, and the list features 16 European Innovation Council (EIC) Partners. With the EIC Service Catalogue platform, EIC beneficiaries and Seal of Excellence holders have an exclusive way to apply for selected services from these organisations. Innovators may even receive funding to cover the costs of the services through the EIC ACCESS+ initiative.
This is the second edition of the Financial Times’ Europe's Leading Start-Up Hubs ranking. The list ranks the top 150 organisations offering incubator and/or accelerator programmes to teams and startups in Europe. Elaborated in collaboration with Statista as well as Sifted, the ranking draws on experiences shared by the alumni of the programmes led by the organisations.
After featuring 14 EIC Partners in the previous edition, the 2025 version of the ranking expands that number, naming 16 of the organisations providing their services through the EIC Service Catalogue. With this platform, EIC innovators can discover offers from partners across Europe and beyond, filtering them according to TRL, sector and service category.
The services are provided under the EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme, part of the EIC’s Business Acceleration Services (BAS). EIC innovators can also apply for funding to cover part of the costs of the services on the platform through the EIC ACCESS+ initiative.
Discover the EIC Partners highlighted by the Financial Times in 2025 and explore their services:
Start2 Group is a global innovation leader taking your startup journey to the next level. As a premier startup ecosystem platform, they serve as the ultimate destination for growth-oriented startups, corporations, investors, and governments to shape and scale ventures with growth potential. They provide internationalisation and acceleration services through the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Germany.
3rd place in the European ranking.
InnovX is one of the leading innovation accelerators in Europe focusing on scaling up tech startups through entrepreneurial education, connecting them to the best mix of finance, including venture capital funds, and collaborating with corporates open-to-innovation. They provide acceleration and matchmaking services on the EIC Service Catalogue platform.
Country: Romania.
16th place in the European ranking.
Unicorn Factory Lisboa is a platform of programs and hubs, inspired by international best practices, which supports startups and scaleups in creating sound products and business models, developing efficient processes, and achieving sustained accelerated growth from Lisbon. EIC beneficiaries can apply for their acceleration services through the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Portugal
17th place in the European ranking.
ISE Group is a leading accelerator and ecosystem builder in Eastern Europe with a focus on corporate innovations and access to new markets. They are hosting their acceleration services on the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Poland
35th place in the European ranking
SpinLab is one of the leading accelerators in Europe according to several rankings and awards. With locations in Leipzig and Hanover, SpinLab and more than 25 corporate partners focuses on energy, smart city, health, B2B software, agtech and bioeconomy startups. EIC beneficiaries can apply for their acceleration, matchmaking and support fundraising services through the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Germany
36th place in the European ranking
Sting has been running extensive incubator and accelerator operations since 2002. In 2012, they launched the first accelerator programme in the Nordics and have since completed 21 accelerator programmes with 170 companies.
Country: Sweden
41st place in the European ranking
The IPN is an RTO aiming to promote innovation and technology transfer, by establishing a connection between academia and the market.
Country: Portugal
42nd place in the European ranking
Atlanpole is a Territorial Innovation Hub in the Nantes economic and university area. Leader, co-leader or partner of several competitiveness clusters, Atlanpole structures a multidisciplinary innovation ecosystem around the balanced metropolis of the Pays de la Loire Region and the Greater West.
Country: France
47th place in the European ranking
9. INAM - Innovation Network for Advanced Materials
INAM is a Berlin-based, globally active organisation, founded by industry leaders, research institutes, investors and public offices to accelerate deep tech startups and help complex innovations reach their target audience.
Country: Germany
66th place in the European ranking
BGI - Sustainable Ventures is a world-class, deep innovation startup accelerator spun out of the MIT Portugal Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, with a long-standing partnership with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Country: Portugal
67th place in the European ranking
Startup Leiria is a not-for-profit organisation supporting entrepreneurs in starting and growing their innovative businesses in a sustainable way, by helping them understand their needs and providing them with the tools to go on the entrepreneurial path.
Country: Portugal
68th place in the European ranking
INCUBALLIANCE is the Paris-Saclay cluster’s shared technology incubator. Their core focus is innovative entrepreneurial technology projects, which are spin-offs from labs or businesses.
Country: France
82nd place in the European ranking
EIT Food is a European Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), part of the EIT, which was set up to transform our food ecosystem. Through the EIC Service Catalogue, they provide EIC beneficiaries with access to their internationalisation, fundraising support and prototyping and PoC services.
Country: Belgium
108th place in the European ranking
Inkubator d. o. o. Sežana provides services to support business and development in the local and regional environment, building an innovative business ecosystem since 1991. Their coaching and mentoring services can be accessed by EIC beneficiaries through the EIC Service Catalogue platform.
Country: Slovenia
118th place in the European ranking
Ignite Sweden is a non-profit programme that aims to establish tighter bonds between innovative startups, and established companies or public organisations so they can initiate commercial collaborations. EIC beneficiaries can find their coaching and matchmaking services on the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Sweden
136th place in the European ranking
EIT Urban Mobility is an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. EIT Urban Mobility is a growing pan-European partnership bringing together businesses, education, research excellence institutions and multifaceted cities. They are hosting selected matchmaking and support fundraising services on the EIC Service Catalogue.
Country: Spain
138th place in the European ranking
What is the EIC Service Catalogue?
The EIC Service Catalogue gathers a vast number of support services, from fundraising to acceleration, matchmaking, and even niche services such as intellectual property and legal support, infrastructure provision and many others. These services are tailored to EIC beneficiaries and Seal of Excellence holders and provided by the group of innovation ecosystem organisations known as EIC Partners.
If you are having trouble finding resources/services to scale up your solution, the EIC Service Catalogue may be the tool you need.
Log in to the EIC Community to discover more (registered users only).
What is the EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme?
The EIC Service Catalogue is brought to you by the EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme. This programme is creating a network of partner organisations to address one of the greatest challenges for EIC innovators: accessing specialized sector-focused services. By forging new strategic partnerships with key actors, such as business accelerators, incubators, research and training organisations, the EIC helps its beneficiaries access their resources, facilities and expertise, so that no individual need is left unaddressed.
For any questions or technical issues concerning the programme or this session, please contact us through the EIC Community’s contact page with the subject ‘EIC Ecosystem Partnership Programme’ or contact our helpdesk at eicpartnerships-helpdesk@eic-bas.eu.
Can EIC beneficiaries receive financial support to cover the costs of the paid offers on the EIC Service Catalogue?
EIC innovators can apply for financial support to access the paid services on the EIC Service Catalogue through an open call powered by the EIC ACCESS+ initiative.
This call offers up to EUR 60 000 in grants, covering up to 50% of the costs to access specialised services available through the platform. This opportunity is available for EIC beneficiaries or Seal of Excellence holders under the Horizon Europe program.
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.