The Commission announced a new group of eight companies to receive \u20ac10 and \u20ac30 million investments to support them in the crucial scale-up phase to establish a market position. The investments are part of the EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up call. Out of 44 companies that submitted their proposal, 28 were invited to interview with independent high-level experts. Eight of those met all the eligibility and evaluation criteria and are now put forward for investment decisions by the EIC Fund, subject to due diligence.\u202fIf negotiations are successful, the companies may receive a combined \u20ac146.5 million of equity investments (between \u20ac10 and \u20ac30 million per company).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The selected companies cover a wide range of strategic technologies for Europe:\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aignostics<\/a> (Germany) \u2013 transforming drug development and improving patient outcomes with AI\u202fAlice & Bob<\/a> (France) \u2013 building the first universal quantum computerEndurosat<\/a> (Bulgaria) \u2013 making access to space intelligence universalGreenland Resources<\/a> (Denmark (Greenland)) – world class Climax-type molybdenum mineral deposit with by-product magnesiumLuabio<\/a> (Denmark) \u2013 rebuilding chemical industry by combining AI-designed biocatalysts with waste CO2 as feedstockPayload Aerospace<\/a> (Spain) – global space transportation service provider to support cargo and human spaceflight missions to the Moon and MarsQuantware<\/a> (The Netherlands) – the 3D architecture that leads to faster and exponentially more powerful scaling of quantum computingReverion<\/a> (Germany) – the next-generation power plant that makes biogas and renewable energy truly efficient\u00a0<\/p>\n These eight companies, together with additional 18 companies that were also considered excellent but not selected in this round due to the limitations of the available STEP budget, will all receive the\u202fSTEP Seal<\/a>. The Seal aims to facilitate access to complementary or alternative funding as well as to EIC Business Acceleration Services.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Background information\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The EIC STEP Scale Up scheme provides investments of between \u20ac10 and \u20ac30 million (per company) aiming to leverage private co-investment and achieve financing rounds of\u202f\u20ac50\u202fto\u202f\u20ac150 million or more. This addresses the market gap in such financing rounds which are critical for scaling breakthrough innovations in Europe.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The EIC STEP Scale Up call has a budget of \u20ac300 million in 2026. This initiative, which has attracted high demand, aims to provide larger investments in companies developing strategic technologies to bring them to the market and reduce strategic dependencies. The EIC STEP Scale-up will help address a market gap in deep tech scale-up funding in Europe, targeting digital technologies, clean and resource-efficient technologies including net-zero, and biotechnologies.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n The EIC STEP Scale Up call remains continuously open on\u202fFunding and Tenders portal<\/a>\u202f\u202fwith evaluation sessions taking place every quarter.\u202fIn 2026, proposals will be batched at following dates: 6. May 2026, 9 September 2026, 25 November 2026.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n