EIC Accelerator 2021 Results:

What is the EIC Accelerator?

In this article I will provide high-level information about the EIC Accelerator, the submission process and the funding types. I will present the data regarding number of submissions, success rate and the breakdown by funding type in 2021. If you want get all the details, please feel free to read the official EIC Work Programme.

The EIC Accelerator is the most coveted EU funding scheme. It is a 3-step process. All starts on an online platform where applicants have to provide information and uploading documentation about literally everything about the company: their technology, their IPR, go-to-market, marketing plan, capital needs, management team, cap-table and financials. At Lira we love to say the required documentation is a real Investment Memorandum.

The 3-step process include a short application, a full application and a face to face interview. While the short application is always open, full applications can only be sent during pre-set dates. In 2021, there were two cut-off dates for the full application: one in June and the other in October.

Being a funding scheme, the EIC Accelerator offers four funding types:

1. Grant-only ==> for companies that require a grant and not equity to bring their technology from a TRL6 to a TRL8. Still they have to show how they will fund 30% of the project costs and grow the company afterwards;

2. Grant-first ==> for companies that require grant + equity from the EIC but might still have to reach a key milestone to further de-risk on their technology before availing of the remaining funding and becoming investors-ready;

3. Blended-finance ==> for companies that require grant + equity from the EIC to cover all their capital needs while advancing/validating their technology and becoming more attractive for private investors;

4. Equity-only ==> for companies at TRL8 ready to scale-up and in need to raise equity from the EIC alongside private investors.

I do not have the short applications data as these submissions can be done at any time. For my high-level analysis we take into account the full applications. EIC Accelerator 2021 results:

– 1,882 full-applications were submitted;

– 343 were invited to the face-to-face interview = 18.2% of the total;

– 164 companies were awarded funding = 47.8% of the ones invited to the F2F interview;

– 9% of full-applications were deemed eligible for funding in 2021;