On 2 April, 24 EIC Accelerator innovators stepped on stage to pitch their solutions to top investors present at the EIC Summit 2025. We spoke to the representatives of EIC beneficiaries D-CRBN, Hyperion Robotics, Solmeyea and Nevomo, chosen by the jury panel as the best pitches of the day, and heard from attending investors to find out how the EIC’s Investor Days are making a difference for European climate tech.
The pitching companies were selected by investors from a pool of 100+ applications, and pitched in front of more than 70 investors from some of the top VC funds in Europe, including Ananda Impact Ventures and World Fund, whose representatives also shared their takeaways from this Investor Day.
The EIC Investor Day on Climate Tech was organised as a satellite event of this year’s EIC Summit. It was powered by the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach programme, which falls under the EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS).
D-CRBN: Converting industrial CO2 emissions to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel
The Investor Day started with a session to showcase the Energy Transition solutions in the EIC portfolio, with investors selecting D-CRBN as the best pitch of the batch.
In the words of Gill Scheltjens, CEO of the company, D-CRBN is “transforming CO2, which is a very inert molecule, back to an active molecule and we are displacing [it] back to the chemical, petrochemical and steel making industry so that they can base the products that they’re producing at this moment on CO2 instead of fossil fuels.”
“It's a fantastic event, very well organised, but it's also a necessary event at these times in Europe”, told us Scheltjens, adding that the showcase aligned with D-CRBN’s goal to “make Europe into a new powerhouse.”
He found the questions from investors relevant and is confident that the company will soon close a “very successful investment round”.
Hyperion Robotics: building smarter concrete structures
Next up, the round on Industrial Biotech and New Materials companies finished with Hyperion Robotics taking the best pitch distinction.
Fernando De los Rios, CEO of Hyperion Robotics, summed up the Investor Day’s appeal for the company: “I think it's a great opportunity to meet these different kinds of investors in Climate Tech and Deep Tech, which is really where Hyperion, our company, is in. So, I would encourage the EIC to keep pushing this kind of conferences.”
Hyperion designs and manufactures low-carbon concrete infrastructures. They have developed micro factories that combine existing equipment with their own robotics systems, software and low carbon materials, allowing them to make more efficient concrete structures. Their foundations are lighter and use 70% less CO2 compared to traditional solutions.
“I am meeting some investors that we were in touch with before, and also meeting new ones”, Rios told the organising team.
To Rios, Investor Days are a good opportunity for companies like Hyperion. “I think this is one of the great benefits of the EIC: they’re not just our funders, they’re also organising these great events to help us in the next steps of our journey”, he explained.
Solmeyea: CO2 circularity for the food sector
Vasilis Stenos, CEO of Solmeyea, sums up the solution that earned the company the distinction of best pitch in Agritech and Food in three words: “food from CO2”.
These EIC beneficiaries are producing quality protein made from carbon emissions thanks to white microalgae. Their functional proteins, bioactive pigments and natural oils can be safely incorporated into any possible plant-based food matrix. Soon, the company hopes to expand their use and be able to produce biomaterials and commodities from CO2.
“We’ve been to quite a few similar events, but I’d have to admit that this is the most high-profile. Because of the timing, when we [Solmeyea] are raising our very first Series A round, it makes absolute sense for us”, revealed Vasilis Stenos, later adding “I’m quite amazed to admit that we have some quite specific investors that we’re hoping to meet here and that, by coincidence, almost 90% of our targeted list of investors is already at this event.”
To Stenos, this is a testament to the EIC’s “sophistication” when it comes to supporting its companies. “I cannot come up with any better event than this”, he explained, adding that attending the EIC’s initiatives is not only a source of accomplishment for the EIC-funded companies, but also a way to give back by making the most of the parallel initiatives being designed for beneficiaries.
Nevomo: bringing railway into the future with a unique hybrid technology
The last session of the day introduced the Green Mobility and Transportation companies. The best pitch distinction went to Nevomo, which is developing a hyperloop-inspired transportation technology with double the average speed of a conventional railway.
Their solution, MagRail, can be implemented through existing railway assets, with no need to build new lines, simplifying the adoption of the technology and greatly lowering the costs. With the version of the system in a commercial stage, Nevomo is looking into opportunities in Europe and beyond, including in the Middle East, India and the United States (US). Existing overseas partners include Texmaco and TrinityRail.
“Europe is super rich in capital, but it's very conservative”, told us Ben Paczek, CEO and Co-founder of Nevomo. “Innovation and Venture Capital, I believe, should be supported and stimulated to mobilise the funds that are abundant in pension funds, in insurance companies and in the banking system because, with this, we can really grow the global leaders.”
Paczek complimented the selection of investors at the event and expressed his approval in seeing the European Climate Tech ecosystem getting “very strong and active.”
For Nevomo, the Investor Day came at a perfect time. “We are in the middle of closing our series A, so it's been perfect timing, from our perspective, to still to get some people on board for the final €2M that we have available”, explained Ben Paczek, CEO and Co-founder of the company, adding that the EIC has been “absolutely instrumental for [Nevomo]. We wouldn't have gotten here without them.”
Making a difference: how the EIC is showing investors that deep tech can be capital efficient
“When it comes to deep tech, and particularly those with manufacturing or high CapEx (capital expenditure), a lot of investors are put off by the levels of risk that need to be taken. What you’re doing here is kind of unveiling and demonstrating how far [these companies] have been able to get with support from the EU, from the EIC and from other investors”, highlighted Zoe Peden, Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures.
To Peden, the EIC is “demonstrating that you can get quite far along, that you can get capital efficient and removing biases that you may already have had in your head for the past 10 years, when our job [as investors] is to look forward for the next ten years.”
“It acts as a really nice reminder, what you’re able to do with this showcase,” she explains, adding that “to really make a difference, you can’t just invest in software, it needs to be more than that. At Ananda, we ourselves are aware of this. But having showcases like this helps us open our eyes and perhaps take more risks than we would have normally done.”
On a more prosaic level, attending the event is also a chance to see what is going on outside of Germany, where Ananda Impact Ventures is based, and the UK, from which Peck herself is working.
“It’s a great chance to catch up with a large part of the ecosystem”, commented Craig Douglas, Partner at World Fund.
To Douglas, the “quality of the pitches was remarkably good.” While World Fund had seen most of the companies before, the event was an opportunity to see them making process, catch up to what they are doing and see them get through to their growth phase.
Douglas also revealed that they are looking into six to eight follow-ups with the companies. “Considering that there were 24 in total, that’s a pretty high rate of companies that we want to look further into”, he explained.
Full list of companies pitching at the EIC Investor Day on Climate Tech
Check the full list of EIC Accelerator pitching companies HERE and below:
- Energy: Circular Materials, D-CRBN, Ekkono Solutions, Magneto, Plexigrid, SOLAR MATERIALS, STABL Energy.
- Industrial Biotech and New Materials: BIOWEG, Catalyxx, Hyperion Robotics, Resortecs, Roka Furadada.
- Agritech and Food: Brevel, constellr, Infinite Roots®, Millow, Onego Bio, Solmeyea, Zymofix.
- Green Mobility and Transportation: AURA AERO, EH GROUP, Elonroad, Kasi Technologies, Nevomo.
Watch our recap video featuring the companies and investors who joined the pitching sessions.
About the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme
This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme, part of the EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS). The programme aims to enhance the investor readiness of EIC Accelerator innovators by providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to attract investment and scale their ventures. Once ready, the programme also provides introductions to the best investors in their sector through ePitchings and Investor Days.
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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.