EIC Accelerator — deep tech scale-ups
Europe's largest single non-dilutive cheque for a startup, with an optional equity tranche on top.
- Amount
- €2,500,000
- Issuer type
- Government
- Decision time
- 5–7 months
- Effort
- Heavy — 20+ days of work
Key facts
| Amount | €2,500,000 — plus up to €15,000,000 equity via the EIC Fund |
| Funding type | Blended — grant plus optional equity |
| Issuer | European Innovation Council |
| Who can apply | SMEs registered in an EU member state or Horizon-associated country |
| Sectors | Deep tech · Climate · HealthTech · AI/ML |
| Payout | Tranches against work packages |
| Deadline | Closes 08 Oct 2026 |
Eligibility criteria
6 criteria · 4 are hard requirements
- Registered as an SME in an EU or Horizon-associated countryRequired
- Technology at TRL 5–8 with a validated prototypeRequired
- Not majority-owned by a large enterpriseRequired
- Short application submitted and passed firstRequired
- Market-creating innovation with EU-scale ambitionPreferred
- Team able to absorb €2.5M within 24 monthsPreferred
Rewritten from the official page into yes/no checks. Nothing here is summarised away — if the source states it, it is on this list.
What you have to submit
- —Short application: 5 pages, deck, 3-minute video
- —Full proposal (~50 pages)
- —Financial statements, 3 years
- —Freedom-to-operate summary
Odds, as reported by the issuer
~1,000 full proposals per cut-off · ~70 funded · 7% success rate
Update history
Source: eic.ec.europa.eu ↗
✓ checked 9 hours ago
- 9 hours agoagentFull re-crawl of the official page — no changes detected
- 11 days agoagentDeadline and amount confirmed against the issuer's page
- 01 Jul 2026humanHuman review — criteria rewritten into yes/no checks
Related
| SBIR Phase I — America's Seed Fund (NSF) | $275,000 | Closes 06 Aug 2026 |
| Startup Qatar Investment Program — START track | $1,100,000 | No fixed deadline |
| Innovate UK Smart Grants — July round | £500,000 | Closes 30 Jul 2026 |