Project description
Supporting startups to access markets
It’s not easy for deep-tech startups to move out of the lab and successfully to market. There are all sorts of cultural, legal and economic challenges they need to address. For many deep-tech startups, the main challenge is the long time needed to reach a maturity level, which makes it difficult to attract investors. For Widening Countries, commercialisation is even more challenging. To reverse this trend, the European Commission has launched Europe-wide initiatives (European Investment Council and Startup Europe). In this context, the EU-funded VENTURES THRIVE project will support 32 startups, providing up to EUR 100 000 (cash and vouchers) to each of them. It will assist the startups in accessing markets via corporate challenges and networking opportunities.
Objective
European startups face barriers when scaling due to the cultural, legal and economic fragmentation of the market. While the EU demonstrates high performance in “the lab”, this does not translate proportionally into thriving commercial ventures. For deeptech startups, the key challenge is the lengthy time needed to reach a maturity level adequate for adoption, making investing risky. In the case of Widening Countries, commercialization of deeptech is even more challenging.
The EC has made a substantial effort to support deeptech with initiatives aiming to invest in and connect entrepreneurs at a pan-European scale (EIC Accelerator and the Startup Europe initiative). VENTURES THRIVE inherits the spirit of these initiatives, concretely building on three waves of Startup Europe with a novel approach targeted at deeptech startups in Widening Area countries. This unique open innovation startup programme will provide up to €100K (cash and vouchers) each to a total of 32 startups. Along with equity-free funding, the core programme offers value-add services aimed at: fostering access to markets via corporate challenges, improved investment readiness, and greater visibility, investment and networking opportunities. The project consortium and external associates comprise venture builders, event organisers, VC & Angel Investors, corporates and expert mentors. Overall, the startups are expected to unlock +€18M via investment, grants and corporate procurement.
The secret ingredient is the consortium and their extensive networks. ACCELER8 (Malta) is a venture builder commercialising top-level scientific innovations. ANTHOLOGY VENTURES (Bulgaria) is a venture studio, incubating early-stage teams and business angels. WOLVES SUMMIT (Poland), the major event for startups in the CEE region, offers the perfect connection with investors, corporates and the tech community. Notably, they have already facilitated over 37,000 meetings between startups and investors from +60 countries.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
MST 1019 Mosta
Malta
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.