This week, we have been having some interesting conversations around “older tech companies” and public funding programmes. Some of us remember when the “startup” word was not so pervasive and most of the innovation happened at “tech-based companies”.
In fact, some years ago being or not a startup was not that important for public funding programmes and the evaluation criteria was typically focused on the excellence of the innovation and the market potential. There were even programmes that required companies to have a minimum age…
That was many years ago, when the SME-Instrument was the main EU funding instrument for SME innovation and the EIC didn’t even exist.
But now, can a 10-year old company win the EIC Accelerator?
The answer is that the chance is slim according to the data. The graph shows the winners of the latest call (October 2024) according to their year of foundation. Only 8 companies with 10-years of existence or longer received the EIC Accelerator on the last call, out of 71 (11.2%). No companies with an age of 14 years or older were awarded the grant. However, it is surprising to see that there is a peak in winners founded in 2017 and 2018 which would correspond to 7-8 year-old companies. You can find a more detailed analysis here.
In a conversation with a potential applicant, the follow-up question was even more inquisitive and challenging:
Does this mean that 10-year old (or older) companies cannot be innovative? Or disruptive?
What do you think?
#innovation #disruption #eicaccelerator #horizoneurope
First published on Linkedin by David Arias
