The European Innovation Council (EIC) has updated its investment guidelines with a raft of new decisions and investment scenarios.
The EU-backed body said the new guidelines, which run to 36 pages, gave new information on, and explained in detail, the investment process. Moving on from previous versions, the EIC added they offered updated definitions of qualified investors and possible investment scenarios, along with new clauses covering EIC Fund follow-on investments and exits.
“The investment guidelines ensure the EIC investments fulfil the objectives to support high potential start-ups and SMEs to accelerate their scale-up and to catalyse additional investors,” it said. “This text is applicable to companies selected under Horizon Europe.”
According to the EU, the EIC was established under the EU Horizon Europe programme and has a budget of €10.1bn to “support game-changing innovations throughout the lifecycle from early-stage research to proof-of-concept, technology transfer, and the financing and scale-up of start-ups and SMEs”.
The EIC also has under its auspices the EIC Fund, which operates as its investment arm. Since June 2020, the EIC said, the EIC Fund has approved around 350 investments in deep-tech companies across Europe. The total approved investment amount for those companies is €2bn.
In 2023, the EIC Fund supported more than 100 investment rounds in deep-tech companies, securing co-investments from 280 other investors worth €1.2bn. In doing so, the EIC added, it was leveraging more than €3.50 of additional investment for each euro of direct investment through the EIC Fund.
