Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Scaleup4Europe (The establishment of cross-border operating “Scaleup Labs” to increase the efficiency of the scaling support in specific industry verticals: Health, AgTech, Smart Region and Agile Manufacturing.) Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2022-12-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The project Scaleup4Europe’s objective was the establishment of four cross-border operating “Scaleup Labs” by interconnecting existing startup and scaleup support ecosystems.Scaling a startup beyond the local market is a challenging task for most young enterprises while at the same time it is an important success factor. Many startups fail in this process due to lack of know-how, networks, resources, because of misleading expectations and an inappropriate financial support basis. Most often they also lack experience with access to financing and sales across borders. These limitations put the scaling process at risk. To support the scaling process, five project partners from four countries that together formed the Scaleup4Europe project (Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Serbia) set up “Scaleup Labs” for specific industry verticals - Smart Region, Health Sciences, Agile Manufacturing and Agricultural Tech (“Agtech”) - that benefit significantly from deep tech innovations. Each lab is led by one or two project partners and is supported through a high level of interconnectedness by all partners providing deep tech scaleups with a structured open innovation approach in which they can achieve cross-border market success, through successful collaborations with corporate customers, investors, and/or public institutions.The Scaleup Labs are based on the ”living lab” concept and supported qualifying scaleups in achieving a “Proof of Scalability”. This is achieved when the scaleups comply with all requirements of technological, market, organizational and investor readiness and their innovation is adapted to a specific customer need. The goal was to establish sustainable support structures that connect the partnering startup ecosystems and their deep tech member communities in an innovative way that creates a lasting and larger regional support system. Each lab was responsible for assembling laboratory stakeholders – from the project’s region and where appropriate from beyond. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far The first year of the project period (01-12/2020) was dedicated to project implementation and documentation activities, primarily setting up the project management team and structure, reaching a common understanding with regards to each partner’s specific execution papers related to all work packages as well as a first trial support programme.From 03/2020 onwards, the project organization, communication and processes were faced with the effects of the Corona pandemic. A shift in focus of global startup development and support trends, the cancellation of relevant scaleup support formats and the subsequent development of virtual formats required many adjustments in their general and project specific activities from all partners. Regardless of the new challenges and specifically reacting to the pandemic situation, project partners executed an internal scaleup scouting programme: a “Post-Corona” call with a focus on scalable innovation to overcome the crisis. This programme also served as a trial for cooperation and learning for the coming support activities.In the 2nd year of the project period (01-12/2021) all labs launched their support programmes as planned and successfully executed calls addressing specific technology verticals and challenges. The partners and supporting stakeholders, scouted, identified, evaluated and invited many scaleups and startups to join the labs. The support included many different offerings with a clear focus on very individualized and customized coach-scaleup support. To measure the success of the support, the partners earlier defined clear KPIs, most importantly in the definition of “transactional” scaling success, e.g. successfully entering new markets and adding new (cross-border) customers, concluding strategic partnerships, adding new resources that support the scaling effort, establishing pilots or closing a financial investment.During the 3rd and last year of the project (01-12/2022) all labs continued their support programmes, developed business models for the time following the European funding and intensified the documentation of achievements.For the business future of the project beyond the European financial support, each lab defined a viable business plan as a key to the sustainability and future financing of the Scaleup Lab programmes. The plans included the funding and sponsorship strategies as well as the future cooperation between the partners building on the very high level of interactivity and connectedness that has been built between the partners during the project life. As an example, the AgTech Lab became the nucleus for the Serbian AgTech supercluster, funded by USAID.The team also organised several workshops and conferences like Smart Region Days to connect the scaleups with relevant decision makers and stakeholders in public administrations and development agencies from different European countries. The partners actively participated at conferences, workshops, matchmaking events, pitch events and exhibitions, like e.g. Xhibition, ViennaUp, WebSummit or Anuga Food Tech.Measuring the outcome of the project, the four labs executed 10 acceleration programmes, identifying 340 startups and scaleups of which 161 received general support, 125 were accepted into the programmes and with 82 startups and scaleups very customized action plans were agreed and executed. Under the predefined most relevant KPIs, 51 scaling success transaction were achieved. 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 most impactful support was as expected the very individual scaleup coaching support. This was based on a thorough understanding of the scaleups´ business, their organizational, financial and technical scaling readiness levels and measures to close potential readiness gaps. The customized support led to the successful business transactions such as specific corporate-scaleup commercial or strategic interactions or actual access to further scaling support programs. With this, the project´s main impact was to successfully overcome in many cases one of the most challenging hurdles for young enterprises: a supported access to corporate decision makers outside of their home market to expand successfully across borders.Another relevant impact of the cooperation between all project partners is a significant interconnectedness between five startup support ecosystems in Central and South-East Europe. All partners worked together as one larger integrated network for European startups supporting their expansion through multiple lasting integration mechanisms. This integration multiplies the outreach and efficiency significantly - today and for the future.At last, Scaleup4Europe focused on innovative technology solutions that not only serve a business purpose but also have a wider societal impact. Many supported technologies addressed climate change or the overall improvements of citizens` living conditions. Furthermore, those scaleups that shared this often confidential information with the project partners almost doubled headcount during the project support timeline. Scaleup4Europe-Logo Related documents Zukunft Europa Pic.jpg AgTech Supercluster brochure_small.jpg Xhibition_pic.jpg SU4EU_Team_Belgrad_small.jpg
