The EIC Accelerator funding (grant and equity, with blended financing option) by the European Commission (EC) and European Innovation Council (EIC) awards up to €2.5 million in grant and €10 million in equity financing per project (€12.5 million total) and is designed for startups and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME), often supported by professional writers, freelancers or consultants.

This article is part of a series that contains suggestions for the EIC and the EIC Board regarding various improvements to the evaluation process (see ChatEIC).

Interview Update

There are a few issues with the time gap between the Step 2 submission and the Step 3 interviews. Pitch decks and financials are often outdated. It is also cumbersome to update an entire proposal between two deadlines after a Step 2 or 3 rejection, which means that much of the proposal might be outdated since busy companies did not bother to revise most sections before resubmitting (i.e., workpackages or team).

This is especially true for scaleups that move fast and where workpackages would need to be revised every month.

A minimum fix should be a simple update questionnaire of just half a page to be filled out 7 days before the interview. It can then be printed out for the jury members as well, so that they can use it during the interview. Here are suggestions for this short questionnaire:

• Declaration: “I understand that misrepresenting the details below will make me ineligible to receive EIC funding of any kind, irrespective of evaluation results or interview performance.”

• Disclose the following as concisely as possible:

• • What is your monthly burnrate in euros as of last month?
  • What is your total cash balance in euros as of last month?
  • What is your total debt in euros as of last month?
  • What is your FTE count as of today?
  • Have there been any changes in company structure, ownership (including cap table), office/laboratory/workshop/factory address that are not represented in the Step 2 proposal?
  • Does your company have a parent organization? If yes, in which country?
  • Does your company plan to restructure under a parent organization in another country?
  • Does your company have or plan to have subsidiaries in another country?
  • How much ownership does the team actively working in the company hold in aggregate today? Express the number as a single percentage (i.e., 60%).
  • Are there any legal proceedings involving your company in any way that are active today, have recently concluded, or that are being anticipated in the near future (i.e., lawsuits, bankruptcy proceedings, legal probes, audits, etc.)?
  • Describe your current fundraising efforts and any funding raised that is not disclosed in the proposal by naming:
    • All investors you are in discussions with.
    • Your current valuation target.
    • Your current investment target.
    • The due diligence status.
    • Termsheet status.
  • What are your Year-on-Year revenues from last month backwards?
  • Are you in active discussions regarding a potential merger, acquisition, SPAC, or IPO as of today?
  • Have any other notable milestones been achieved (new customers, partners, technology benchmarks, etc.)?

These questions also serve the purpose of the probing usually done by the EIB representatives. If they are not present, the jury will always be able to probe these aspects regardless. Adding this update list can solve a few problems at once for the jury, since any red flags will be obvious immediately.

Important: Many (or most) EIC Accelerator winners raise funding during the application process because of the long waiting periods and common rejections. Being in a due diligence process and having signed a termsheet should not be a rejection reason even if the funding round is substantial. But there could be a threshold.

Is a €150 million round too high? It could be, but it will depend on the goals of the EIC Board. There could be a hard threshold like €100 million or €50 million, but it might be better to leave the decision up to the Jury.

EIC STEP Scale-Up Fasttrack

Another option could be to give the jury the ability to invite this company straight to the STEP Scale-Up interviews after rejecting them if they have raised an excessive amount of funding, but are deemed to be of strategic importance.

They might not need the grant, but the EIC might want to invest equity regardless, so this could be a great solution. If they are currently closing a €100 million round, then the EIC can reject them but invest with the EIC Fund via the STEP Scale-Up in their next round without making them reapply (i.e., straight to the interview or skipping the interview entirely: STEP Fasttrack).

While STEP is designed for strategically important technologies, it could simply be the catch-all for anything the EIC deems to be of strategic importance, irrespective of the technology.

Disclosing fundraising to the jury might significantly change the outcomes of upcoming interviews since it could reveal that all the “good” companies are raising money despite the EIC, so this needs to be looked at carefully.

Based on experience, the question “Can you succeed without the EIC?” should be answered with a “yes” for the EIC to find a company attractive. Jury members have to be trained not to reject companies that are signing termsheets on the day of the interview, but to simply consider the amount of the funding and the strategic position of the EIC.

If the Jury wants to fund a company that has recently raised or is about to raise private capital, then they can simply follow this logic:

• Is a grant still life-changing for this company despite the equity raise?
  • Yes, if below the funding size threshold: The company is eligible for a grant.
  • No, if above the funding size threshold: The company is ineligible for a grant.
• Is there a strategic reason for the EIC Fund to invest?
  • Yes, and the funding size is below the threshold: The company can be funded through blended finance under the EIC Accelerator.
  • Yes, but the funding size is above the threshold: The company can be fast-tracked to the STEP Scale-Up call for a pure equity investment that also better aligns with larger rounds.

Regarding the runway of the company, this should be assessed against their funding plans (loans, bridge round, etc.) and not be seen as a definite bankruptcy date.

This article was last modified on May 4, 2025 @ 09:43

These tips are not only useful for European startups, professional writers, consultants and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) but are generally recommended when writing a business plan or investor documents.

Deadlines: Post-Horizon 2020, the EIC Accelerator accepts Step 1 submissions now while the deadlines for the full applications (Step 2) under Horizon Europe are:

• Step 1
  • Open now: Apply as soon as possible to be eligible for the next Step 2 submission deadline
    • Proposals are sent for evaluation on the first Tuesday of every month
• Step 2 (closing 17:00 Brussels Time)
  • 1^st cut-off 2025: -
  • 2^nd cut-off 2025: March 12^th 2025
  • 3^rd cut-off 2025: -
  • 4^th cut-off 2025: October 1^st 2025
• Step 3
  • 1^st cut-off 2025: -
  • 2^nd cut-off 2025: TBD
  • 3^rd cut-off 2025: -
  • 4^th cut-off 2025: TBD

The Step 1 applications must be submitted weeks in advance of Step 2. The next EIC Accelerator cut-off for Step 2 (full proposal) can be found here. After Brexit, UK companies can still apply to the EIC Accelerator under Horizon Europe albeit with non-dilutive grant applications only - thereby excluding equity-financing.

Contact: You can reach out to us via this contact form to work with a professional consultant.

AI Grant Writer: ChatEIC is a fully automated EIC Accelerator grant proposal writer: Get it here.

EU, UK & US Startups: Alternative financing options for EU, UK and US innovation startups are the EIC Pathfinder (combining Future and Emerging Technologies - FET Open & FET Proactive) with €4M per project, Thematic Priorities, European Innovation Partnerships (EIP), Innovate UK with £3M (for UK-companies only) as well as the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants with $1M (for US-companies only).

Any more questions? View the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.

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by Stephan Segler, PhD
Professional Grant Consultant at Segler Consulting

General information on the EIC Accelerator template, professional grant writing and how to prepare a successful application can be found in the following articles:

A Quick FTO Guide for EIC Accelerator Applicants in a Rush

2023 Budget Allocations for EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator

Developing the Unique Selling Points (USP) for the EIC Accelerator

Explaining the Resubmission Process for the EIC Accelerator

A Short but Comprehensive Explanation of the EIC Accelerator

EIC Accelerator Success Cases

Deciding Between EIC Pathfinder, Transition and Accelerator

A Winning Candidate for the EIC Accelerator

EIC Accelerator Interview Preparation Process: Scripting the Pitch (Part 1)