Can we still say Happy New Year? We're not sure, but we just did!
Please find below an update on the EIC Scaling Club, the European Innovation Council and the broader European deep tech ecosystem(s).
Kind regards,
The EIC Scaling Club team
News and insights from the EIC Scaling Club
We hope you enjoyed the holiday break and 2024 is off to a good start.
We have stayed busy selecting the best deep tech companies, investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholder to join our curated community.
Make sure to check your inbox to see whether you've been invited to apply for membership!
We cannot wait to showcase the first cohort on 9 and 10 April in Brussels and Leuven at our kick-off event, the upcoming Ignition Forum event - more info about that is coming soon but you should already save the date!
We're delighted that so many companies, investors and organisations have already placed their trust in us and joined (and applied to join) the EIC Scaling Club! 🙏
We are gathering many of the most promising Deep Tech companies from across Europe to join the EIC Scaling Club; all whom have been carefully nominated by a selection of a distinguished group of investors, corporations, agencies and clusters.
Members will soon benefit exclusively from the Club’s network, mentorship programmes, investor matchmaking sessions and more.
We are looking forward to welcoming many more of you as we gear up to build a curated, high-level community of deep tech innovators to reach the next level.
A small selection of early members:
Here are some insights from leading innovators to kick off 2024 with:
Thoughts on European deep tech from Massimo Portincaso (Arsenale, Deepwave Ventures, Hello Tomorrow, ex-BCG)
We caught upwith Massimo Portincaso, a "recovering management consultant" who co-led Boston Consulting Group's deep tech practice towards the end of his 15-years+ BCG tenure, an investor and advisor at Deepwave Ventures and now the entrepreneur behind fledgling bio-manufacturing startup Arsenale.
Massimo was also a valued part of the efforts behind EIC ScalingUp TOP50, the predecessor to the EIC Scaling Club, and serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board to Hello Tomorrow, one of the partners in this project.
Shift4Good co-founder Yann Marteil backs EIC Scaling Club's mission to accelerate global impact
We had a chat with Yann Marteil, co-founder and managing partner of Shift4Good, an impact VC fund dedicated to investments in transportation decarbonisation technologies.
To support the EIC Scaling Club, Yann will serve as President of the 'Smart Mobility' group, as it is one of the 10 market sector opportunities we'veidentified as crucial for European deep tech entrepreneurs and investors to target for positive impact.
Making space more sustainable: A chat with ClearSpace co-founder and CEO Luc Piguet
In recent times, the issue of space traffic has become a priority for the European Space Agency because of the threat posed by the increasing amount of debris orbiting the Earth. This is the problem being addressed byClearSpace, a Switzerland-based deep tech company that's on a mission to make space - and particularly Earth's orbit - vastly more sustainable.
At the recent OTB Ventures Summitin Warsaw, we caught up with Luc Piguet, co-founder and CEO of ClearSpace, to describe in more detail the nature of thechallenge, and what it takes toremove junk from space, and its ambitious plans for the future.
We've been keeping track on Europe's deep tech ecosystem(s).
Here's an overview of the biggest news and milestones
from leading companies, investors and organisations:
Northvolt raises $5 billionto enable expansion of first circular gigafactory in the western world.
Electraraises €304Min record-breaking equity fundraising for its EV charging network
Octopus Energy Generation has invested£200 million in Deep Green, a London-based tech company, to expand their innovative data centre heat reuse technology in the UK.
The network of partners 'Seeds of Bravery' selected to implement a €20 million EIC action supporting Ukraine’s innovation community, launched their first call for Ukrainian startups.
The first ever report on the state of the national deep tech ecosystem from the Royal Academy of Engineering shows that UK deep tech is dominated by men, with just 7.5% of UK deep tech companies founded by all-female teams.
Worth a look!
European deep tech startups are making waves
Here's a selection of recent funding stories from some of
Europe's most promising early-stage deep tech startups:
German-Dutch startup Zander Laboratories secured €30 million in fundingfrom Germany’s Cyber Security Agency to transform the interaction between humans and machines.