An investment support programme targeted relevant VCs and investment-ready startups for the Artificial Intelligence/Blockchain equity fund scheme under InvestEU.
The European Startups project communicated with the ecosystem based on data-driven knowledge and trends about startups and scaleups across Europe.
As these projects are coming to the end, we are pleased to highlight their achievements.
Startup3
Driven by real market needs, STARTUP3 aim was to build and facilitate an open and collaborative ecosystem for high-impact deep-tech innovation and to act as a cross-border/sectoral market-maker.
Throughout the duration of the project, 5 top deep-tech startups were selected among 250 applicants to go through a year long acceleration programme. They completed the programme which provided individualised coaching and prospection services.
Their deep technologies are tackling key markets and answering diverse challenges, thereby contributing to the building of a digital-autonomous Europe:
- AI for med-tech,
- IoT and AI for sustainable food & environment,
- IoT for industry 4.0,
- VR for metaverse environment,
- Space and AI for safe smart building.
The startups’ acceleration was supported by the STARTUP3 Corporate Pool (15+ Corporations, 6 Investors and 15+ Support organisations) –– who followed the startups’ development and were involved in their mentoring and selection.
From the accelerator start until November 2021, 135 deals were established, of which 65 with clients, 15+ with R&D partners, 15+ with accelerators, 10+ with public funding bodies, and 10+ with private investors. The startups launched 15+ products in the market and raised EUR 2.6 million, of which almost EUR 1 million private funding.
STARTUP3 Cooperation Platform has mapped the 305 STARTUP3 ecosystem players, which will ensure continuity of their collaboration for future deep-tech innovation opportunities.
Visit startup3.eu for more information.
Twitter: @startup3_eu | Instagram: @startup3_eu | LinkedIn: startup3 | Facebook: startup3.accelerator
Contact: Clémence CASTELL (project coordinator)
X-Europe
X-Europe supported the growth of 150 deeptech startups and scaleups, distributed in six cohorts: HealthTech, AgriTech, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Smart Cities & Sustainability, SpaceTech, and Fintech.
Out of almost 700 applicants from all over Europe, the selected startups enrolled in a 6-month action-packed programme offering growth hacking training, investment readiness and business development workshops, one-on-one mentoring sessions, corporate and investment matchmaking support, as well as promotion services.
Startups had the chance to pitch and showcase their solutions in multiple tech events, including those hosted by the X-Europe team: Design Terminal Future of Agritech, TNW Conference, TechChill, Space Terminal. In addition, X-Europe organised 3 acceleration weeks, built a community of deeptech actors across the Benelux, the Baltics and the Visegrad, and published multiple articles on the startup ecosystems.
Since the start of the programme, X-Europe startups have raised more than EUR 90 million combined and listed over 200 job openings.
Visit xeurope.eu for more information.
Twitter: @xeuropeproject | Instagram: @xeuropeproject | LinkedIn: xeurope
Contacts: Sofia Esteves (project coordinator)
B-HUB for Europe
B-HUB FOR EUROPE set up a European hub for blockchain startups building in Italy, Germany, France, Romania, and Lithuania to leverage technological excellence and boost blockchain-based applications towards the public and private sectors. Through mapping, five blockchain ecosystems were explored.
Support for business growth has been provided to 45 European startups by facilitating business connections and bringing blockchain applications closer to the market.
Over the 24 month period, the B-HUB FOR EUROPE initiative has contributed to awareness raising of the blockchain technology among potential adopters (30 training sessions with 500+ attending organisations), business support to startups through the supply of 190+ tailored acceleration services and 42 matchmaking opportunities leading to commercial agreements, technology partnerships, PoCs development and technology piloting, seed fundraising operations and access to public finance at national and European level.
Insights from project stakeholders and experts were collected to feed the regulatory environment at the EU level.
Visit b-hub.eu for more information.
Twitter: @B_Hub4eu | Facebook: @BHubforEurope | LinkedIn: b-hub-for-europe
Contact: Antonella Vulcano (project manager)
INNODEC (Dealflow.eu)
The innovator discovery platform Dealflow.eu was launched by project INNODEC, leveraging data from the Innovation Radar. The platform enables startups to benefit from best-practice resources and support, and facilitates matchmaking with investors. Investors can use it to discover the most innovative EU-funded startups aligned with their investment strategy and sectoral interests.
During the project, Dealflow also provided dedicated support to over 500 startups from across Europe and helped them successfully raise a combined EUR 645 million in funding. Comparing startups from the applicant pool, Dealflow.eu’s support doubled the chance for a startup to raise a funding round.
Dealflow.eu also hosted 8 e-pitching events to further facilitate startup and investor interactions. In total, 78 startups pitched their innovations in front of over 800 investors.
Dealflow.eu plan is to continue working with the Innovation Radar and improving the Dealflow.eu matchmaking platform to make it the go-to resource for investors to discover EU’s most innovative startups.
Visit dealflow.eu for more information.
Twitter: @DealflowEU | LinkedIn: Dealflow-EU
Contact: Thijs Povel (project coordinator)
Scale-Up Champions
The main goal of Scale-Up Champions was to unlock deep-tech startups’ full potential by connecting them with mentors, investors and corporates across Europe. During the 2 years, Scale-up Champions not only gained trust among the most promising deep-tech startups but their programmes made it possible for them to meet and create synergy.
Scale-up Champions was recognised as one of the three winners of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) Inspiring Solutions awards 2021. The initiative has attracted 89 startups for the Investment Readiness Programme. Around 85 investors have joined the network of venture capital funds, business angels and entrepreneurs.
Scale-Up Champions released Market Discovery Tours for 100 startups from all over Europe in 33 sessions run by 80 speakers and mentors from Poland, Denmark, Spain and Lithuania. In addition, by fostering startup-corporate collaboration, its international team has attracted big European corporations like Pzifer, Cisco, Desigual and others from all over Europe to join Scale-up Champions and bring more than 50 challenges for deep-tech startups to offer needful solutions.
Visit Scale-Up Champions for more information.
Youtube: @ScaleUpChampions | LinkedIn: ScaleUpChampions
Contact: Anna Torz (project coordinator)
DeepTech for Digital Transformation Launchpad (DT2)
DeepTech for Digital Transformation Launchpad, in short: DT2 Invest, is an Investment Support Programme for the emerging fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain Technologies supported by the European Commission.
DT2 Invest’s main outputs include mapping and assessing the current AI and Blockchain landscape in Europe and raising awareness through dedicated workshops, online consultations, and several reports, as well as creating an online learning offer. All generated outputs are available on the DT2 Website.
The programme’s closing event, held in December 2021 as a Slush’s side event in Helsinki, was conceived in the framework of one of its core activities: building bridges between existing EC and EIF actions and other Initiatives to develop a dynamic EU-wide investor community for digital strategic technologies. Hence, its main goal was concretely to connect digital innovators with investors; and officially launch its DT2 Portfolio, the result of a year-long process of mapping, assessing, and selecting a portfolio of top-performing European AI and Blockchain start-ups and scale-ups.
The impact generated by DT2 Invest will continue to be visible in a longer time frame. DT2 Portfolio and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) are two strategic tools made available to the community of investors and companies to raise awareness and knowledge on AI and Blockchain and to reduce the gap between private investors and high-quality startups.
Visit DT2Invest for more information.
Youtube: DT2 Invest Launchpad | LinkedIn: DT2 Invest Launchpad
Contact: Valentina Grillea (project coordinator)
European Startups
Over the past two years, the European Startups project led by Dealroom and Sifted has provided the European Commission, EU27 policymakers, and tech ecosystem stakeholders with a common reference and measurement of Europe’s tech hubs, and supported evidence-based policymaking around entrepreneurship and innovation.
This was achieved through the development of continuous real-time data and insights on the European Startups data platform, supported by 10 reports, and eight events, as well as the training of policy-makers in tech industry data and tooling. European Startups insights were used to inform multiple pieces of national and supranational policy, including the EU’s startup and unicorn targets into the next decade.
The project mapped the EU's most promising deep tech hubs, dived into decentralized finance, measured startups' contribution to job creation, and provided invaluable unique industry feedback at the height of the pandemic. By providing transparency of data, and acting as a trusted player at the heart of the industry, the project has helped level the playing field for innovation, and increase pan-European networking and collaboration between startups, investors, universities and corporates.
The work by Dealroom and Sifted helped instil a sense of urgency across the EU27 Member States in the power of entrepreneurship and innovation. Intuitive insights, trusted data and essential events highlighted the rapidly-evolving strengths, and addressed key industry weaknesses in a constructive, solutions-focused manner.
Visit European Startups for more information.
Twitter: European Startups.co | LinkedIn: Dealroom.co
Contact: Yoram Wijngaarde (project coordinator)
Media Motor Europe
From January 2020 to December 2021 MediaMotor Europe has set up 3 open calls to select 20 startups to coach for 6 months. A total of 60 deep-tech startups from 20+ EU countries were supported by 18 Coaches who guided the startups in one-to-one sessions over 3 support cycles. There were a total of 240 Coaching sessions, 33 workshops on specific topics given by industry experts and 25 media organisations that enrolled to get to know the startups and follow their journey.
A total of 289 client introductions were made. These clients contain Media broadcasters, Media corporates and other startups.
123 pitching opportunities were organized at events such as Mediatech on Stage, Future Week by Media City Bergen, Media Fast Forward by VRT and Slush. A total of 61 investors matches were made between startups and investors.
Startup United Robots raised EUR 1.5 million round A funding. Startup Musicube raised seed round B funding. 8 of the participating startups were selected in the first open call of the STADIEM project which is a great next step after MediaMotorEurope. STADIEM is a co-creation project with Media organizations with funding available.
Visit mediamotoreurope.eu for more information.
Twitter: @MediaMotorEU | Instagram: @mediamotor_project | LinkedIn: mediamotoreurope | Youtube: MediaMotorEurope
Contact: Clélia Twagirayesu (project coordinator)
Scaleup4Europe
The most relevant Scaleup4Europe project achievements are measurable by individual scaleup coaching support. This has led to successful business transactions such as specific corporate-scaleup commercial or strategic interactions or access to further scaling support programs. The project´s main goal was to overcome one of the most challenging hurdles for young entrepreneurs - supported access to corporate decision makers outside of their home market to expand successfully across borders.
All labs launched their support programmes and successfully executed 5 calls addressing specific technology verticals and challenges in the area of Smart Region, Health Tech, Agile Manufacturing and AgriTech. In total 311 startups and scaleups have been identified, of which 75 entered the Scaleup Labs. Finally, 26 scaleups were supported with cross-border transactions, finding new customers, setting up pilots or closing a financial investment.
Another relevant impact is the increased interconnectedness between five leading startup support ecosystems in a coherent central-south eastern European region. All partners are now acting together as one large integrated network for European startups supporting their expansion through multiple lasting integration mechanisms. This integration multiplies the outreach and efficiency significantly - today and in the future.
Visit scaleup4.eu for more information.
LinkedIn: Scaleup4europe
Contact: Lars Holstein (project coordinator)