Discover how innovators funded through the European Innovation Council impacted the innovation landscape while securing investments worth €1.2 billion.
Europe is growing its efforts to support deep-tech innovations, mainly through the European Innovation Council (EIC) from Horizon Europe and its €10 billion budget. During the EIC Summit 2024, the European Commission (EC) launched the EIC Impact Report 2023, shedding light on the impacts of innovators benefiting from the EIC and its previous start-ups and SME-oriented instruments while contributing to the innovation ecosystem. One key novelty of this report is the portfolio approach which looks specifically at investments in critical technologies, such as advanced materials, artificial intelligence, and biotechnologies.
Since the official launch of the EIC in 2021, the “Horizon Europe EIC portfolio” now counts more than 500 start-ups as beneficiaries from its instruments, 275 research projects carried out, and 140 projects supported towards the commercialisation of research results. On the other hand, the long-term impacts capitalised under the “full EIC portfolio” take into consideration projects under the EIC pilot (from 2018 to 2020), the SME Instrument Phase II, and the Future and Emerging Technologies (both since 2014). The fully-fledged EIC since 2021 secured 100 investment rounds under the EIC Fund, with 280 co-investments from other investors, for a total worth of €1.2 billion. Every euro spent by the EIC Fund resulted in 3.5 euros of additional investment from mainly private but also governmental investors. The EIC also supports the EU’s competitiveness by contributing over €500 million in artificial intelligence through projects and companies and a further €500 million to support the development of quantum technologies and semiconductors.
Looking at the “full EIC portfolio”, companies supported through the EIC under Horizon Europe and the predecessor programme under Horizon 2020 saw, in the first two years after receiving the support, their operating revenue grow by 68% and their employment rate by 38%. In addition, companies supported since 2014 have raised €12 billion in follow-on investments, mainly from Venture Capitalists. As a result, the overall portfolio value of EIC-supported companies reached nearly €70 billion, with an increase of €20 billion in the last year. Looking at the supported sectors, the EC priorities are also reflected, to a certain extent, in the EIC Horizon Europe portfolio, with 51% of projects in the health sector, 28% in digital, industry, and space, and 21% in green projects.
The EIC Summit 2024 was also the opportunity to announce the first cohort of companies selected under the EIC Scaling Club, aiming at bringing together investors, corporates, mentors, and promising companies and act as a catalyst for the growth of these high-potential companies. Furthermore, the new cohort of EIC Ambassadors was introduced during this gathering, and their role is to increase the outreach and promotion of the EIC at a local, national or European level, as well as provide feedback to support the further evolution of the EIC. Cristina Riesen, EIC Ambassador, and former EIC Board Member, is the only Swiss representative of this group.
Lastly, the EC also published a report on the state-of-play of the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) since its launch in 2022. Out of the 25 actions divided into five flagships in this agenda, 13 have been completed, and 12 are still ongoing (see page 24 of the report for the overview of the actions). This initiative aims to support the uptake of the deep-tech wave in Europe and unlock its innovation potential. Concrete outcomes sought by the NEIA are, among others, to (i) mobilise untapped sources of private capital (such as pension funds, asset managers, or insurance companies), (ii) to clarify the nature and role of available experimentation tools in innovation procurement (especially regulatory sandboxes, but also testbeds and living labs), and (iii) to nurture, retain and attract talented and skilled individuals for instance with better supporting women-led start-ups, but also by training talents in the deep-tech sector. The completion and full implementation of the NEIA, along with enhanced coordination and exchange of good practices with and amongst Member States, should significantly contribute to boosting European innovation and competitiveness.