The European Innovation Council (EIC) recently announced the selection of 68 companies to receive EIC Accelerator funding after the first evaluation round of 2024. The deep-tech start-ups and SMEs will share an estimated €165mil in grants and €245mil in equity.
The chosen proposals, cover a wide range of innovative and emerging technologies from renewable energy to AI to biomedical applications. Among them, five quantum technology start-ups/SMEs will receive grants for the following proposals:
All five companies will receive ‘blended finance’, i.e. a combination of grants and equity investments, the latter being made through the EIC Fund and typically topped up by capital from external investors.
“I personally consider the EIC Accelerator to be an essential instrument for financing deep tech, high-risk start-ups that are strategically relevant in the EU. The Accelerator will allow us to push our objectives and vision of building Europe's leading quantum photonic products,” Stefan Hengesbach, CEO of QuiX Quantum.
A list of quantum technology companies funded in previous EIC rounds – also under the EIC Pathfinder and Transition initiatives – can be found in our list of projects.