9 Oct 2024
The EIC Scaling Club continues to attract some of the brightest minds to its leadership, and one of the latest key additions is the appointment of Carmen Font as the new Group President for Clean Fuels and Hydrogen. With a wealth of experience in the private and public sectors and a passion for clean energy, Carmen promises to provide invaluable help for deep tech scale-ups operating in the rapidly changing energy landscape.
A global perspective with deep expertise
The new Group President's career has spanned multiple fields, giving her a unique perspective on business development and scaling. Carmen began her career in economics, graduating with a degree in the field, followed by an MBA at the prestigious Solvay Business School in Brussels. After several years in corporate banking at the Bank of New York, she shifted toward the public sector.
Carmen joined the British government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in Spain. She led investments within the energy, financial, and life sciences sectors, guiding British and Spanish companies through complex market entry strategies.
Following this, she took on a leading role in Aragon’s government as Director of Investments. “I helped companies – both European and non-European – go through the full investment process, from permitting to strategic partnerships,” Carmen shared. This blend of private and public sector experience has given her a deep knowledge of startups' challenges when scaling internationally.
Today, Carmen runs her own investment and expansion company, Font Corporation, supporting companies through accessing financial and public funding, strategic alliances, and market expansion. In some cases, Font Corporation also invests in the company it supports.
Joining the EIC Scaling Club
Carmen's involvement with the EIC Scaling Club began on the other side of the table, as she supported companies pitching to be part of the initiative. "I was on the other side," she says, "I knew what it was to pitch and to look for partnerships and so forth." Her deep involvement with startups made her a natural fit for the Clean Fuels and Hydrogen group presidency, a role offered after years of interaction with the Scaling Club and its initiatives.
She highlights how important initiatives like the EIC Scaling Club are and why she is happy to be involved:
I think we need much more scaling clubs in place. You see the figures – hundreds of startups in Europe are interested in being part of this program. But at the end of the day, just a fraction of those would be able to engage directly. There is a lot of potential to continue scaling up, and I'm sure one of the objectives would be not just to deliver and help grow all these companies that we are going to be with during these years but also to replicate this business model and attract more companies, more startups.”
Carmen's experience in securing public funding is one of her key strengths. "It's not just about how much you can raise from public funding," she explains. "It’s like your business card you can present to future partners to continue raising funds, accelerating the process of funding projects, and getting private investment." Her knowledge of regional, national, and European funding will be invaluable to scale-ups, guiding them to the right opportunities.
In addition to funding, Font helps startups refine their business models and scale their products. “I can help them envision their next steps – who to partner with, where to expand, and how to scale." With Carmen's experience and connections, scale-ups working with her can take their companies to the next level.
A vision for Europe’s clean energy future
For Carmen, the EIC Scaling Club is not just about mentoring startups – it’s about being part of a larger movement to decarbonize Europe. She says:
"Decarbonizing Europe is truly a global revolution, so playing an active part in it and contributing as much as possible is very important to me."
The new Group President is also committed to exploring new public funding opportunities for startups through the EIC, the EU, and elsewhere. As Europe faces increasing competition from the U.S. and China in deep-tech innovation, Carmen believes it is crucial to support European startups. “One of the top priorities for me, as a European, is to help the deep-tech companies we have in Europe,” Carmen says, concluding the conversation with an emphasis on future collaboration with the scale-ups:
“Startups need a very strong proposition for investors to attract project investments. I hope that I will be able to contribute to and help them achieve this.”
About the EIC Scaling Club
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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