The EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme enrolled 5 more promising Pathfinder and Transition projects in the first phase of its process, the Tech Demo Days. Last week, on the Tech Demo Day on Engineering a bright group of EIC beneficiaries pitched their innovations to a panel of experts. The session counted with the collaboration of the EIC Programme Manager Franc Mouwen.
The EIC beneficiaries’ feedback
We had the opportunity to speak with Marco Arzeo, from SeeQC-EU, representing the Pathfinder project SuperGate, and with Miren Juriasti Gutiérrez, from EURAC Research, representing the Pathfinder project ZERAF.
SuperGate is developing a fully superconducting, three-terminal, gate-controlled transistor to realise faster and more energy-efficient logic devices for applications in computing and telecommunication.
ZERAF is an innovative opaque façade technology that can intelligently control heat transfer, blocking or enhancing heat exchange through façades to effectively reduce the heating and cooling energy demand of buildings.
For Miren Gutiérrez, the representative of ZERAF, participating in the Programme was very interesting, as “it helped us understand the main concerns about the innovation for people outside the project. In this way, we can work to address them during the development of the innovation and learn how to better communicate those aspects to different stakeholders”. With the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme, Miren and her team wish to better understand what steps they need to take to address the market of their technology.
Marco Arzeo, the representative of SuperGate, highlighted the presentation to the panel of experts on the Tech Demo Day: “It was good to hear the questions and comments triggered by my presentation. It helped me to see what the experts perceive about our project, and it made me understand the weaker and stronger parts of the messages that I tried to deliver, and what should be more emphasized or clarified”.
Marco also added that this first phase, particularly the individual support session, was “quite useful and insightful, and contributed a lot to improve the pitch deck. This will also be beneficial in the future, beyond the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme”.
What’s next?
Both projects moved to the Opportunities’ Exploration phase in the Programme, where they will receive guidance on feasibility from a team of experts with business insights that can support them with recommendations for improvement.
What did the experts have to say?
We had the opportunity to hear from Hacer Özmen Yilmaz, R&D Project Manager at TEKNASYON, and Mohamed Abdelmomen, Private Equity Technical Advisory Analyst at RingStone, members of the panel of experts.
For Hacer Özmen Yilmaz, programmes like the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme are “pivotal in empowering researchers with cutting-edge innovations to navigate the complex landscape of business market entry. By offering specialised training, mentorship, and access to networks, these programmes equip researchers with the essential entrepreneurial skills and connections needed to turn their innovations into successful businesses”. Hacer continued to add the benefits that this type of programmes brings to early-stage innovators: "They provide valuable support in validating technologies, understanding market needs, and refining business models, thereby increasing the likelihood of market adoption and success. Ultimately, playing a critical role in fostering innovation ecosystems, driving economic growth, and creating opportunities for societal impact through the growth of deep-tech startups”.
Mohamed agrees that the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme is “the gateway to access the market, learn, develop, and the very early key of bridging between academia and the market”. His main advice for EIC’s early-stage innovators is “to develop the presentation skills, learn what to show and to whom, and get in contact with more people in the market or get mentorship to guide through the market reality”.
In the same direction, Hacer believes it is important for early-stage innovators to “seek continuous feedback and iteration. Innovators should actively seek feedback from potential users, industry experts, and mentors throughout the development process. They should use this feedback to iterate and improve their products or solutions”.
Two more Tech Demo Days already started, in Health and in Biotech, and the final events will take place on the 4th and 5th of April.
Next week, on 19 March, the EIC T2M Venture Building Programme will also host a session at the EIC Summit. Titled “How to build your future spin-off, learn from Pathfinder and Transition beneficiaries”, this event aims to share the experiences of EIC researchers proto-entrepreneurs on how they have acquired critical skills in the programme that helped them build a viable business model and how they have connected with valuable service providers that supported their venture development.
About the EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme
The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme aims to help build start-ups to exploit promising research results through venture building services, comprising a range of activities from identification of promising business ideas to venture creation and development.
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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.