Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) is poised to significantly impact Europe's tech landscape and enhance the EU’s industrial competitiveness. A webinar “Scale up with STEP: access tailored resources for growth across Europe”, hosted on January 23rd, offered valuable insights into the STEP initiative by the European Innovation Council, the EIC STEP Scale Up call. Here’s a quick recap of the key highlights.
STEP is all about scaling European companies in strategic tech sectors. With a €300 million budget for 2025 and a total of €900 million planned over three years, the program aims to fuel innovation and reduce technological dependencies. The focus is on funding rounds between €50 and 150 million, with the EIC Fund contributing €10-30 million per company.
STEP prioritises three key areas:
Eligible companies include growth-stage European businesses in the strategic tech domains mentioned above, whether they are current EIC beneficiaries or new applicants. A key investment condition is a mandatory pre-commitment from a qualified investor covering at least 20% of the funding round. Furthermore, projects must align with STEP’s strategic impact criteria, ensuring they contribute to European competitiveness and technological resilience.
The application process involves the following steps:
*Proposals are evaluated in batches approximately every three months, ensuring a rolling review process. The first batch is expected around mid-February, but if submitted after this, your proposal will simply be reviewed in the next round. This flexibility allows you to submit when ready, ensuring a thorough evaluation without rushing to meet a fixed deadline. More information about the call can be found here.
High-potential applicants who meet the evaluation criteria but are not selected for funding will receive the STEP Seal – certification that can open doors to alternative financing, either through national or regional programs and to the EIC business acceleration support services. Furthermore, STEP can be combined with other EU initiatives like the Innovation Fund and Structural Funds, creating a robust funding ecosystem.
Finally, the EIC Trusted Investor Network (TIN) offers another opportunity for scale-ups to connect with leading deep-tech investors. TIN unites more than 78 qualified investors who agree to combine their efforts and co-invest with the EIC Fund. The EIC Fund's role as a cornerstone investor will help to attract private capital and reduce reliance on non-European funding.
In short, STEP is a game-changer for European tech, offering substantial funding, strategic support, and access to a powerful network of investors. It's an initiative worth watching closely.
For a quicker review or any inquiries, feel free to reach out to the EIC Scaling Club group managers for assistance.
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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