In July, the EIC Tech to Market (T2M) Venture Building Programme, an EIC Business Acceleration Service, hosted its last Tech Demo Days in Health & Biotech and in Quantum tech & Electronics. In total, 23 innovative EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects teams pitched their innovations to a diverse panel of experts.
The Tech Demo Days, which are the entry door to an enriching venture building journey with the EIC, had the collaboration of the EIC Programme Managers Isabel Obieta and Samira Nik. Keep reading to know more!
The beneficiaries’ point of view
We had the opportunity to speak to Alessia Piccolo, who participated in the Tech Demo Day on Quantum tech & Electronics, representing the EIC Pathfinder project PULSE-COM, and with Frederik Ceyssens, who participated in the Tech Demo Day of Health & Biotech, representing the EIC Pathfinder project HYPERSTIM.
PULSE-COM aims to revolutionize the advanced materials industry by creating innovative systems such as solar cell movers and opto-valves through a photomobile polymer activated by sunlight. The goal is to provide innovative solutions that change the vision linked to devices in the field of sensors and actuators, driving a more efficient and technologically advanced future. They have developed a next generation photomobile polymer that activates and moves with sunlight, an unprecedented innovation that promises to change the way materials are made and manipulated.
HYPERSTIM is working on ways to directly link electronics to the nervous system that are much better in resolution than the state of the art. The goal is to use the available electrodes more efficiently by applying sophisticated stimulation protocols. The innovation has several novel aspects: a fabrication method for ultra-thin microelectrode arrays that is still yielding devices that are reliable in the long term, an insertion method to actually get these implants (that are about the thickness of a single cell) in the tissue, and advanced neurostimulation patterns that can create 'virtual electrodes', to yield a resolution that is even higher than the amount of physically present electrodes.
For Alessia Piccolo, the most interesting part of participating in the Tech Demo Day phase “was undoubtedly the interaction with the experts and receiving their valuable advice, which proved to be extremely useful in making our activities more efficient and effective”. Alessia also added that listening to the presentations of the other projects “allowed us to take inspiration from their analyses regarding the approach to the market, thus broadening our perspective and enriching our wealth of knowledge and strategies”.
Frederik Ceyssens also highlighted the experts feedback as the most enriching factors of this phase: “It was very interesting to get in touch with experts with various backgrounds and to polish our presentation and strategy. It was surely helpful to get the ball rolling in our efforts to further improve our pitch deck and to practice commicating with technical and financial experts”.
Alessia and her team shared that their participation in the Programme so far has been extremely beneficial: “we have benefited greatly from interacting with marketers, market analysts and investors. These professionals provided us with valuable suggestions on the activities to implement. Their recommendations have allowed us to identify key areas for improvement and develop more effective strategies to optimize our operations and increase our success in the market. Thanks to their advice, we were able to improve our competitor and stakeholder analysis, developing a unique and compelling value proposition”.
What’s next?
PULSE-COM and HYPERSTIM 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.
The experts’ feedback
We had the opportunity to speak to Marcel Quintana, Technology, Strategy and Innovation Advisor, and with Sandrine Egron, Investment Director at 50 Partners Health.
For Marcel, programmes like the EIC Tech to Market Venture Building are “particularly important, and especially in Europe, to bridge the gap between research and business. These programmes support innovation initiated in research and help progressing towards potential products and/or services, and thus into possible profitable business. The EIC Tech to Market programme is very complete as it brings knowledge and training support to early-stage innovators in the different domains required, provide expert advice and mentoring to shape the project idea, as well as the right ecosystem to engage, partner, disseminate and promote the project idea”.
Sandrine shares the same opinion. For her, “these types of programmes play an essential role in the ecosystem. It is important for the entrepreneurs to be supported by experts since the early stages”.
We asked the experts if they could give two pieces of advice to our early-stage innovators, what would they be. Sandrine said: “for Pathfinder projects, insist on a field user/client approach. Even with no business background, the founding team should think through why/how/when a client company would use the technology. What changes does it bring for the user/client? Is it good enough that the user is willing to pay? Paying attention to who is the client/user is key. The team should go on the field, ask these users if what they imagined stands correct. For more advanced projects, it is essential to present the business plan, sales strategy, and clients pipe”.
Marcel also shared his advice: “firstly, think about the team composition and prioritise the assembling of this initial team, as it could be a distinguishing factor for its success in the long journey of creating a business. It is important to find a balanced and complementary team, but equally important is they share common goals, motivation, and core values. A second piece of advice would be to not hesitate in taking tough decisions after a careful analysis, and the sooner the early-stage innovators address and resolves them, the sooner it will benefit of the project. This applies to the technological development, commercial and business decisions, team composition, or any other situation the team may encounter”.
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.