RAISING DISRUPTIVE BIOECONOMY VENTURES, STARTUPS AND SPIN-OFFS TO THE TOP

Project Information

BioeconomyVentures

Grant agreement ID: 101023260

DOI

10.3030/101023260

Project closed

EC signature date 21 April 2021

Start date 1 May 2021

End date 31 October 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 1 499 312,50

EU contribution

€ 1 499 312,50

Coordinated by

IRISH BIOECONOMY FOUNDATION
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BioeconomyVentures (RAISING DISRUPTIVE BIOECONOMY VENTURES, STARTUPS AND SPIN-OFFS TO THE TOP)

Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2023-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BioeconomyVentures project aimed to build the reference platform for bioeconomy-based start-ups and spin-offs seeking to gain access to finance, becoming the main meeting point in the European bioeconomy.
Our solution has been on a threefold approach:
1) Building and leveraging the first of its kind bioeconomy entrepreneurship ecosystem, boosted by the BioeconomyVentures Ambassadors Programme (AAP).
2) Creating and validating an assessment methodology for qualify and quantify the needs of the start-ups and spin-offs though the BioeconomyVentures Evaluation Matrix
3) Designing, developing and executing an interactive one-stop-shop- platform that will serve as a main meeting point for the bioeconomy entrepreneurship field, bringing together relevant groups of stakeholders (start-ups, spin-offs, investors and corporates) and integrating, on one single access point, high-quality services aiming to unlock the innovation potential and uncover opportunities to build relationships and partnerships across the BioeconomyVentures network.
The consortium was formed by a strong pool of experts along with the fields of bioeconomy and business with a track record managing entrepreneurship programs. Its partners were intentionally selected by their expertise and geographical reach, bringing together 6 different countries (IE, ES, BE, AT, IT, RS) to consolidate the maximum outreach of the initiative. It consists of 9 partners further complemented by 20 ambassador organisations all over Europe. At the conclusion of the action, each partner parts way with an improved understanding of the sector, a fine-tuned value proposition, and a broader network of supported and startups positively impressed by the project services. Most important, and described in the impact section, multiple thousands of organisations took part in our activities, with tens of Million EURs of investments facilitated into bioeconomy-related SMEs being our biggest achievement.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy and the inherent challenges with successfully growing EU’s bio-based sectors, the BioeconomyVentures project (BV) aimed to build the reference platform for bioeconomy-based start-ups and spin-offs seeking to gain access to finance.
One of the most impactful outcomes of BioeconomyVentures is the increased success rate of startups and spinoffs in the European bioeconomy. It was expected that by the end of the project at least 30 deals (collaboration agreements, partnerships, or investment) would be generated by BV’s services and more than €4 million of private and blended investments would be captured directly through services developed and rolled-out by the project. Many more deals were in fact delivered.
The project ran smoothly over the 30 months of its duration, reaching all its milestones and targets and by its end it achieved an outstanding level of overall performance and impact. A selection of the main impact achieved is summarised below:
- A network of 20 Ambassadors (plus 4 Allied Ambassadors) covering 14 European countries, and 36 different cities, was successfully established at the start of the project for the deployment of the BV Ambassador Programme. The project successful signed Memorandum of Understanding for long-term collaboration in the post-project phase with 20 of such Ambassadors.
- A total of 47 Explore and Expand workshops (BV’s regional pitching and networking events) were delivered across 14 different European countries, allowing a total of 377 startups pitches to be delivered in front of a total of 275 investors, all but one of which were done in-person.
- Successful deployment of the BioeconomyVentures platform as the refence space for matchmaking and access to finance for startups in the European bioeconomy, reaching 524 users (438 startups and 86 investors) in less than 18 months.
- Three Acceleration programmes were launched and delivered, with 94 successfully accelerated startups. As part of it 5 Micro learning modules with 16 different and context-unique trainings (spanning over 740 minutes) were delivered to the 3 cohorts. The programme facilitated 188 startups-corporates meetings and 439 startups-investors meetings.
- Four brokerage deal-making events were successfully organised. Overall, 88 BV-supported startups participated and concluded 490+ business meetings (with investors, corporates or fellow entrepreneurs).
- A total of 88 known deals were made by startups that benefited from BV’s services during the project, including 51 known investment deals and 37 business deals. (That is 58 more deals, or about 193% better than the target.)
- A total of 88.3 million euros were raised through the known investment deals were made by startups that benefited from BV’s services. (That is about €82 million more, or about 1,367% better than the target.)
- Successful establishment of a business plan for the continuation of the BioeconomyVentures platform and successful implementation of a thorough process ensuring exploitation and protection of the key exploitable results (KERs) and establishment of the continuation entity guaranteeing continuation of operations and growth of the BV platform for at least 10 years.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The outstanding results and impacts produced during the action duration are propelling BioeconomyVentures into its continuation phase in an optimal way, well onto the ideal trajectory to achieve its foreseen future impacts. If such positive trend were to continue, thousands more start-ups/spin-offs will continue to actively engage through the one-stop-shop platform and benefiting from a wide array of services to get them ready for investment, connect them with the right investors and receive support to close their investment deals.
Currently, only an average 6% of start-ups receive funding from venture capital investors and/or angel investors, yet lack of funding is the second greatest reason for start-up failure (after lack of market). It has been found that mentoring increases likelihood of raising investment money 7-fold. As BV provided individually targeted support to a selection of businesses and enhanced streamlining of public and blended financing instruments, we could potentially further increase investment rates by 50%.
In only 18 months of existence, the BioeconomyVentures one-stop-shop platform managed to assist at least 88 startups in finding and/or closing investments deals, leading to a total amount of funding raised of 88.3 million euros.
It is foreseen that the BioeconomyVentures community of 500+; 430+ innovators, 80+ investors, will keep growing and as such organically generate additional startup/investor matchmaking. Additionally, the service offering for access to finance for bio-based start-ups will be expended and diversified for a stronger impact.
With the potential future developments of the platform and the momentum already gathered, it is expected that many more startups will match with the right investors and secure the investments they need to scale-up and deploy successfully onto the market thanks to the BV one-stop-shop. An ideal scenario, if the trend for BV continues, is that by 2030 up to one thousand will succeed. Such Startups/spinoffs would be able to attract more investors and/or blended financing, with total of up to € 500 million in private and blended investment facilitated.

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