Project description
Closing Europe’s start-up funding gap
In the ever-evolving landscape of European start-ups, emerging ecosystems face a pressing challenge: securing crucial funding, particularly at the Series A stage. The funding gap in these regions is acute, hindered by both the scarcity of capital and investors. With this in mind, the EU-funded CO-INVESTIN project aims to bridge this financial divide. It will create cross-border co-investment opportunities for modest and moderate EU ecosystems by leveraging promising start-ups in the portfolio of local investors to attract foreign investors from more advanced ecosystems in their new rounds. This project not only seeks to narrow the funding gap but also highlight gender diversity in entrepreneurship and investment.
Objective
CO-INVESTIN focuses on creating cross-border co-investment opportunities for modest and moderate EU ecosystems by leveraging promising startups in the portfolio of local investors to attract foreign investors from more advanced ecosystems in their new rounds. To achieve that, the partners will pilot the approach in 4 emerging ecosystems (EL, BG, RO, PT) where the consortium partners have a strong footprint and progressively integrate at least 10 additional emerging/ moderate ecosystems by the end of the project. The project focuses on the funding gap around the Series A, very acute in these ecosystems both from the lack of capital and investors perspective, as well as in terms of deal size with respect to more advanced ecosystems. As demonstrated by the recent experience with the EIC Fund, identifying a lead investor and co-investors is a challenging task for DeepTech start-ups, in particular the ones from emerging ecosystems.
The CO-INVESTIN approach relies on 4 main dimensions, that cover in a complete manner both the analytic and the action oriented dimensions of the approach: 1. Investment gap analysis, 2. Development of Market Orientation Programmes, 3. Stimulating cross-border investments and 4. Upscaling the framework and enhancing its impacts.
The main project results include:
• At least 5 working groups to foster the creation of structured and coordinated networks
• At least 20 peer investor match-making sessions
• Establishment of local CPI and activation of the Assistance Service for foreign investors
• Market orientation programmes for European investors, with emphasis on women for at least 10 ecosystems
• 5 networking review sessions & VC syndication to encourage joint ventures & Cooperation with innovation agencies
• 2 International business forums & conferences to attract and connect investors
Particular focus will be placed on fostering the increased participation of women in both the entrepreneurial endeavours, as well as investment landscape.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
11854 ATHINA
Greece
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.