EIC STEP Scale Up - April 2025 Results

Who are the April 2025 beneficiaries

The EIC has selected a group of companies to benefit from the EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up call. These companies are set to receive equity investments, pending final decisions by the EIC Fund following due diligence.

From the initial 34 applications, 22 companies were shortlisted for interviews with independent high-level experts, and 7 have fulfilled all criteria to proceed to the investment decision stage.

The selected companies are advancing strategic technologies crucial to Europe:

Axelera AI (Netherlands) – AI hardware acceleration technology
Focused Energy (Germany) – fusion fuel designed for clean energy production
Infinite Orbits (France) – Autonomous in-orbit servicing and AI-powered space surveillance
IQM Finland (Finland) – Quantum computing
Pasqal (France) - Full-stack quantum computing technology.
Xeltis (Netherlands) - Regenerative implants.
Zadient Technologies (France) - Ultra-pure silicon (SiC) materials

Overview - EIC STEP Scale-up

The EIC STEP Scale-up is currently the largest funding stream of the EIC, introduced as main novelty of its 2025 Work Programme. It has a budget of €300 million in 2025 and a projected growth to €900 million over the period 2025-2027. This initiative aims to provide larger investments in companies developing strategic technologies to bring them to the market and reduce strategic dependencies.

The EIC STEP Scale Up scheme provides investments of between €10 and €30 million (per company) aiming to leverage private co-investment and achieve financing rounds of €50 to €150 million or more. This addresses the market gap in such financing rounds which are critical for scaling breakthrough innovations in Europe.

The EIC STEP Scale-up will help address a market gap in deep tech scale-up funding in Europe, targeting digital technologies, clean and resource-efficient technologies including net-zero, and biotechnologies.

Fundraising history

While most of the companies selected so far have a significant fundraising history ($ 90m+), there are exceptions too ...

Source: Winnovart charts based on initial data published by the EIC

The same applies to the number of investment/ fundraising rounds. This variation reflects a certain level diversity in capital-raising trajectories across the STEP portfolio ...

Source: Winnovart charts based on initial data published by the EIC

The United States leads significantly in the number of investors, with a count of 18, making it the most represented country in the dataset. This is followed by France and Germany, with 15 and 14 investors respectively, highlighting strong investor presence from Western Europe. A diverse set of additional countries—including China, Belgium, Singapore, and United Kingdom—each contribute a smaller number of investors, generally between 1 and 3. This distribution illustrates a predominantly Western base, with limited representation from Asia-Pacific and other regions.

Source: Charts created by Winnovart based on publicly available data

The investors behind the EIC STEP portfolio ...

A geographically diverse set of investors led by United States (18), followed by France (15) and Germany (14) and complemented by Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, and United Kingdom. While the number of companies we are reviewing is still limited (7) this geographic diversity could be an indication of the growth capital availability in Europe ... a source of inspiration for the future of EIC STEP, or maybe for the Scale-up Europe Fund ?

Source: Winnovart charts based on initial data published by the EIC

IP Profile Analysis

IP data is not easy to collect and analyse. Whilst likely not 100% accurate the initial IP activity/ performance review of selected companies shows significant variations across the portfolio. These are the boldest Deeptech investments of the EIC Fund so far ...

Source: Winnovart charts based on initial data published by the EIC

Based on the data we reviewed (originating in google patents), out of 57 patents across the whole portfolio of companies, 45.6% appear as approved with 36.8% pending, the rest (17.5%) are categorised as unknown, potentially due to incomplete disclosure or early-stage filings. This distribution could underscore a healthy balance between established IP assets and active innovation, highlighting the dynamic R&D environment among STEP-backed scale-ups.

Source: Winnovart charts based on initial data published by the EIC

Research Methodology & Disclaimer: Based on information published by the EIC we have independently reviewed the profiles of the selected companies from various perspectives (geography, fundraising history, investor profiles, IP profile etc). The data used in Winnovart's reports comes from various platforms we are using and have access to. It represents our own interpretation of the data we are able to find, with no liability for those respective platforms. At Winnovart, we are using and supporting jolt.ninja, Jolt Capital's proprietary AI platform, as part of our ecosystem partnership with the leading European growth investor. We are also using data from platforms like deal room, pitchbook, crunchbase, google patents etc, subject to access and availability limitations.

At Winnovart, it is part of our mission to bridge the gap between government funding and venture capital in Europe.

We believe government funding plays a crucial role in creating and developing ecosystems that drive innovation, foster growth, and reduce regional disparities across Europe. The synergy between government funding and private investment has consistently demonstrated positive effects on recipient companies and their ecosystems. Our goal is to help innovative companies, private investors, and funding agencies maximize the benefits of this synergy.

We provide independent funding advisory, intelligence, facilitate access to funding stakeholders and, occasionally, engage in direct investments.

For more updates on funding opportunities, please follow us on social media: Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter.