Blog

Image credit: Dens

The European Commission has announced the selection of 99 innovative startups and SMEs to be funded under the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme. The selected startups will receive €627M of EU funding to help them bring their technologies to the market.

EU claims this to be one of the largest EIC Accelerator funding rounds to date, wherein the companies will receive grants and/or equity investments, depending on their needs, up to a maximum of €17.5M. 

🏆 Meet the 20 EIT Digital finalists!

Get to know the amazing finalists here

Get to know the amazing finalists here Show Less

Ten of these companies are based out of the Netherlands.

EIC Accelerator – all you need to know

The European Innovation Council was launched under the Horizon Europe programme. The programme witnessed success during a pilot between 2018 and 2020 and has a budget of €10.1B. Approx €1.1B of this budget has been made available in 2021 for the EIC Accelerator.

The EIC Accelerator programme supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular, startups and spin-out companies to develop and scale-up ground-breaking innovations. The programme offers startups and SMEs grants of up to €2.5M combined with equity investments through the EIC Fund ranging from €0.5M to €15M. 

In addition, EIC selected companies also receive coaching, mentoring, access to investors and corporates, and other opportunities.

Since its launch in March 2021, over 4,000 startups and SMEs have sent their ideas and over 1800 have submitted full applications to the cut-offs in June and October. The companies announced today were among 1098 who submitted to the second cut-off on 6 October, while the 65 companies selected following the June cut-off were announced already in October.

10 Dutch companies make the list

These startups were selected following a rigorous process, introduced under Horizon Europe, involving an ideas screening stage and full applications assessed by external experts and an interview with a jury of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. 

The innovative projects from the Netherlands that will receive support include:

AquaBattery

Founder(s): Jiajun Cen

Founded in: 2014

AquaBattery develops batteries that store electricity using renewable energy technologies for various clients. The company wants to stop the use of toxic materials, such as acids, and instead use water and table salt to build battery solutions. Currently, a pilot-scale demonstration is functional at TheGreenVillage, Delft, the Netherlands. This battery will supply energy to nearby sustainable student households.

Dens

Founder(s): Max Aerts, Tijn Swinkels

Founded in: 2018

Dens or Dutch Energy Solutions specialises in Hydrozine solutions that make hydrogen and electricity available to industries operating independently from the electricity grid. The company’s solutions help reduce emissions from agriculture, mining, construction and other industries using heavy-duty vehicles and machines that would otherwise be fuelled by diesel.

Dawn Aerospace

Founder(s): Stefan Powell, James Powell, Tobias Knop, Jeroen Wink, Robert Werner

Founded in: 2017

Dawn Aerospace builds same-day reusable launch vehicles and non-toxic satellite propulsion systems, for sustainable space transportation. The company has achieved a series of milestones in the past 12 months, including launching 15 propulsion units to space from Europe, the US, and Russia, funding from tech investment firm Movac, and the successful first flights of the suborbital spaceplane, the Dawn Mk-II Aurora.

Sympower

Founder(s): Simon Bushell

Founded in: 2015

Sympower is accelerating the global transition towards ‘net zero’ by helping to build smarter, cleaner renewable energy systems. The company’s software solution helps by switching on and off together large numbers of electric heating, air conditioning, and hot water appliances for demand management. In layman terms, their smart controller learns user preferences and makes sure the needs of the household are met in an optimal way. 

Sympower’s software solution can manage a wide range of electrical assets and processes, such as steel smelting, paper production, electric vehicles, and HVAC systems, and utilise them to support the electricity system.

GATT Technologies

Founder(s): Johan Bender, Geert van Gansewinkel (current CEO)

Founded in: 2011

GATT Technologies is a medical device company that has developed a synthetic technology intended to address severe and problematic surgical bleedings and organ leakages. Leveraging its patented technology, the company has developed a synthetic surgical and sealant platform with the potential to become an alternative to the current fibrin and PEG-polymer based solutions in terms of speed, efficacy and cost. 

Currently, the company is focusing on moving the GATT-Patch, a fast hemostatic sealing patch to be used in general surgery, into clinical trials in Europe and the US. Additionally, it is further developing its other pipeline products including GATT-Powder (hemostat, laparoscopic use) and GATT-Tape (intestinal anastomotic leakage) and is assessing other potential applications based on its activated polyoxazoline technology such as bone regeneration, anti-adhesion, vascular, and ophthalmology.

Xeltis

Founder(s): Martijn Cox, Eliane Schutte (current CEO)

Founded in: 2006

Xeltis is a clinical-stage medical device company that makes heart valves. The company’s restorative heart valves enable the patient’s own body to naturally form a new heart valve through a therapeutic approach called Endogenous Tissue Restoration (ETR). With ETR, the patient’s natural healing system develops tissue that pervades Xeltis’ heart valve, forming a new, natural and fully functional valve within it. As ETR occurs, Xeltis implants are gradually absorbed by the body.

Currently, Xeltis has initiated the development of three types of cardiovascular implants: pulmonary heart valves, coronary artery bypass graft, and hemodialysis access grafts. Xeltis has its headquarters in Switzerland too.

QphoX

Founder(s): Simon Groeblacher, Frederick Hijazi, Robert Stockill

Founded in: 2021

QphoX is a developer of quantum modems and transducers. It has developed the Quantum Modem, a “breakthrough” device that will allow quantum computers to talk to one another by unlocking the potential of the ‘quantum internet’. The company says it will develop the Quantum Modem it conceived at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) into a commercial product, combining the fields of quantum computing and quantum communication.

Fibriant

Founder(s): Jaap Koopman, Jos Grimbergen

Founded in: 2015 

Fibriant is a biotech startup focusing on the development and production of recombinant fibrinogen. Fibrinogen is a protein found in blood and plays an important role in blood clotting, tissue repair, and natural defences against infections.

Next Generation Sensors

Founder(s): Dr. Sarfaraz Syed

Founded in: 2017

Next Generation Sensors aims to bring solutions for a safer world by bringing the lab to the sample with portable, sensitive, and accurate technology for easy detection of harmful substances in food, bodies, and the environment. The company aims to solve this problem through a portable mass spectrometer.

Allero Therapeutics

Founder(s): Emil Pot, Federico Grego, Kees Leenhouts, Poul Sørensen

Founded in: 2016

Allero Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops next generation immunotherapies for allergic and autoimmune disease patients, with a focus on food-related immune disorders. Its proprietary SOMIT (Specific OroMucosal ImmunoTherapy) technology is designed to induce long-lasting antigen-specific tolerance.​

List of all selected startups

The selected 99 companies will receive the grant financing within the coming months, while the equity investment is likely to take longer as the arrangements for implementing EIC equity need to be re-established under Horizon Europe.

You can check out the complete list of selected startups here.