With a budget of €300 million in 2025 and projected to grow to €900 million until 2027, the EIC STEP Scale-up call aims to provide investments of €10 to €30 million per company into European scaleups. The programme aims to fill the market gap in scale-up funding in Europe and targets digital technologies, clean and sustainability technologies and biotechnologies.
I have been taking a look at the winners as of June, 2025:
- Multiverse Computing (Spain) – AI model compressor to make AI systems faster, cheaper and energy efficient
- Hyimpulse Technologies (Germany) – Small satellite launchers
- Dronamics (Bulgaria, Ireland) – Drones for cargo delivery
- Classiq technologies (Israel) – Quantum software that enables the design, optimization, analysis, and execution of quantum algorithms
- Axelera AI (The Netherlands) – AI hardware acceleration technology for generative AI and computer vision inference
- Focused Energy (Germany) – fusion fuel designed for clean energy production, derived from sea water & lithium.
- Infinite Orbits (France) – Europe’s first commercial provider of autonomous in-orbit servicing and AI-powered space surveillance.
- IQM Finland (Finland) – On-premises quantum computers for supercomputing centres, enterprises, and research labs
- Pasqal (France) – Developer of a full-stack quantum computing technology designed to simulate complex phenomena for scientific discovery.
- Xeltis (The Netherlands) – Regenerative implants using Nobel-prize winning chemistry to revolutionise vascular surgery through natural tissue regeneration.
- Zadient Technologies (France) – Silicon carbide (SiC) materials for EVs, renewables, and semiconductor resilience.
The following graphs show the distribution of winners by vertical and geography:
The companies selected have raised a total of €1,061 million in funding and employ over 1,400 people. The average company has raised €96 million (including the EIC round) and employs 132 people. However, there is a great variance among the companies in the pool and, given the still limited number of companies selected, the statistics are still only illustrative. These figures will not necessarily stay stable in the next few years.
Although it may still be too early to extract clear conclusions from this very limited sample, there are some aspects to be noticed:
- Quantum stands out as the most strategic technology, followed by AI;
- Space is also one of the leading verticals, although it was not explicitly mentioned in the STEP priorities;
- Horizon Europe associated countries (eg. Israel, Switzerland, Norway, etc.) seem to have the same probability of success as EU participants;
- Health and mobility are very underrepresented sectors if we take into account their strategic importance for Europe;
This article was first published on LinkedIn by David Arias.
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