European Innovation Council Fund fully up and running

An exciting piece of news came from the EIC last week with the appointment of an external fund manager to take investment decisions in the 139 start-ups and SMEs selected so far for EIC investments. It’s a important jump forward with the EIC now being fully operational in providing a unique combination of grants, investments and business acceleration services to Europe’s most promising start-ups.

The external Fund Manager, AlterDomus Management Company S.A., will take responsibility for investment decisions on the high risk, high impact companies following the rigorous selection process for the EIC Accelerator. All due diligence activities will be undertaken by the European Investment Bank.

The Fund Manager will have to follow the EIC Fund’s Investment Guidelines and will also benefit from an expert advisory committee. The first investment decisions are expected to be taken during October with other investment decisions completed in the coming months.

In the meantime, significant progress has been made to ensure that selected companies receive the grant component of their support quickly. Currently, 150 grant agreements have been signed - up from 100 grant signatures just a few weeks ago. In a further step to simplify decision making, the Commission will from tomorrow onwards, as a general rule, remove the need to approve EIC Accelerator funding through College-level decisions, which will shorten the time from when a company applies to when it receives its first grant payment towards the 5 month target set by the EIC Board.

How will the EIC Fund work?

Following a restructure of the EIC Fund as an alternative investment fund (AIF), investment decisions are taken and managed by an external (alternative investment) fund manager (AIFM), fully compliant with the AIFM Directive.

The Fund Manager will make investment decisions on all SMEs and start-ups selected through the EIC Accelerator evaluation process to receive blended (grant and equity) or equity-only financing. The selection of companies is based on criteria such as the breakthrough nature of the innovation (with “deep tech” taking precedence), the potential to scale up, and with risk levels that are too high for private investors alone.

Following due diligence checks by the EIB, the investment must also meet the EIC Fund’s Investment Guidelines.

The EIC and SME Executive Agency (EISMEA) will continue to manage the application and evaluation process for the EIC Accelerator, to provide the grant support and business acceleration services to the selected companies, and to ensure a coordinated approach with the EIC Fund investments to maximise the companies’ chances of success. The EIC Board provides independent high-level advice on the strategy and implementation of the EIC.

EIC Fund history

The EIC Fund implements the equity part of the EIC Accelerator, offering a unique range of grants, equity investments and blended finance which has strongly benefitted start-ups and SMEs since its launch in March 2021.

The EIC Fund is the most active public European deep-tech investor in 2022, solely buying into high-risk, deep-tech companies trying to reach the market. Since it was launched, the EIC has assessed over 7000 short applications submitted on a continuous basis and evaluated within 4 weeks, evaluated almost 4000 full applications submitted to regular cut-offs (June and October 2021 and March and June 2022 cut-offs), conducted over 800 interviews with shortlisted companies, and selected 236 for funding as well as awarded over 300 Seals of Excellence to facilitate funding from other programmes.

You can find out more on the EIC Funding opportunities page plus there’s further details about the EIC Accelerator. 

How Myriad Associates gives you the best chance of R&D grant funding success

Every R&D grant is different, with different criteria and new competitions opening throughout the year. Knowing exactly when each competition opens and closes, what the criteria is and even if your company/R&D project is eligible can be a minefield. That’s why companies up and down Ireland are using the services of an experienced R&D grants consultancy like Myriad Associates.

Applying for an R&D grant takes a huge amount of time and resource. Not only do you need to put forward an extremely strong case for your innovation, but you need to really get across the commercial and technical perspective too. It may even be possible to claim R&D Tax Credits alongside your grant too, therefore maximising your innovation funding opportunities.

With an industry-leading 70% success rate, Myriad Associates can help you finance your innovative project by securing R&D grant money that doesn’t need to be paid back. From start to finish, we’ll craft and R&D grant application that’s second to none, offering the best chances of success.

So why not get in touch with us today and see how R&D grants could super charge your company’s innovative plans?

Call us on +353 1 566 2001 or send us a message and one of the team will call you back.