Horizon-eic-2026-bas-02-sclateup

Expected Impact

The action is expected to generate the following impact:

• Strengthening growth skills through mentoring and curated peer learning on fundamental growth barriers such as inclusive work culture, organisation, talent attraction, international expansion, and funding.
• Increase the number and value of investments deals from strategic European and non-European, co-investments partners, such as public and private investors (including National Promotional Banks and Institutions or/and Regional Banks that provide late-stage investment), including funding through initial public offerings (IPOs) and acquisitions of the participating companies.
• Increase the number and value of commercial deals from customers and through strategic partners, e.g. corporates, buyers, infrastructure and service providers, within EU as well as in foreign markets.
• Strengthening attractiveness to attract highly skilled talents.
• Building a strong peer-network of Europe’s top-performing deep tech founders and key mentors.
• Strengthen visibility of supported companies and the image of the European deep tech scaleup scene.

Objective

The focus for EIC Scaling Club 2.0 is to increase success and support the growth of the top deep tech companies in Europe, by strengthen the skills, knowledge and network of peers, investors and customers needed for growth.

Scope

EIC Scaling Club 2.0 should support a minimum of 70 deep tech companies with the potential to scale up as global leaders or potential unicorns. 196 Minimum 35 of these companies should come from the EIC portfolio (primarily EIC Fund portfolio) and the remaining deep tech companies should come from similar programmes at Member State and Associated Country level.

The identified companies, ready for series B+ funding rounds, should demonstrate credible high-growth potential and should develop cutting-edge solutions in key technological areas, contributing to Europe’s technological autonomy and supporting EU’s strategic priorities, e.g. AI, advanced materials, quantum, biotech, robotics and space technologies, energy and decarbonisation, as specified in the Competitive Compass for the EU.[1] The cohort of supported companies, active in diverse sectors, should be geographically and gender diverse, engaging companies from across the EU and Horizon Europe Associated countries and a balanced portfolio of women-led companies.

The initiative should provide a package of growth-focused capability building support through bespoke networking and learning among peers and partners, as well as facilitating outreach. The initiative should also enhance visibility of the selected companies and the European scaleup scene.

The activities

The package of growth-focused support to the identified companies, should focus on:

• strengthening investment readiness
• strengthening operational excellence
• facilitate outreach to new customers, business partners and market (e.g. within EU as well as expansion to foreign markets)
• facilitate access to (late-stage) financing
• facilitate access to talents.

The initiative should leverage the existing networks and build on the success and methodologies of its predecessor action, the EIC Scaling Club.

For the implementation, the action should:

• be tailored to the specific needs of Europe’s deep tech companies in various sectors. It should be delivered in an agile way while, properly balancing companies’ engagement and the action’s added value.
• be implemented in strong conjunction with the EIC Business Acceleration Services, and the network of EIC ecosystem partners, exploiting synergies and cross-promoting relevant actions, such as the international trade fairs, matchmaking with corporates, innovation procurement, investor outreach, etc.
• support participating companies’ engagement in relevant scale-up schemes at EU level (EIC Step Scale Up, InvestEU initiative, EU Innovation Fund, etc.) and national levels (soft-landing schemes).
• play a proactive role in helping EIC build growth, expertise and leadership in the field of scaling up companies, by contributing to a better understanding of concrete challenges and needs of Europe’s deep tech scale-ups and knowledge on the most efficient interventions to overcome the challenges.
• engage the EIC Scaling Club alumni companies, leveraging their scale-up experience, insights, and networks to strengthen the ecosystem for new cohorts. Alumni companies can act as mentors or peer advisors, providing real-world perspectives and fostering a culture of collaboration. An ongoing engagement of alumni companies would not only reinforce community ties but also support the alumni’s own continued growth through visibility and access to new opportunities.
• should effectively promote the participating companies as Europe’s most promising tech champions and global leaders. The action’s branding and visual identity should be closely linked with the EIC, contributing to reinforcement of respective actions and all communication activities should be closely coordinated with EIC communication actions.

The proposal must describe the suggested methodology, both for identifying the supported companies and for scaling them up. The proposal should include the concrete set of proposed scale-up support actions, strengthened by the rationale for their implementation and added-value. It should also suggest a methodology for alumni engagement and visibility enhancement.

The implementing consortium should:

• demonstrate expertise, experience and means to foster substantial growth of European Deeptech scale-ups.
• suggest a suitable set of KPIs to measure and report impact. The results should be reported twice a year to the EU commission and the Agency.
• establish systematic data gathering, that ensures full respect of the data protection regulations, in order to evaluate impact and refine future actions.
• establish a steering group. The members of the steering group should be selected in collaboration with the commission and include representatives from all part of the ecosystem, as well as the commission.
• decure that all communication is clearly branded as EIC actions and approved by the EIC communication teams.
• ensure synergies with:
• other EIC activities (e.g., EIC Innovation Procurement, EIC ecosystem partnership, Corporate Partnership programme 4.0 and Co-investment Support).
• relevant EU industry alliances, missions, and innovation ecosystems.

[1] A Competitiveness Compass for the EU, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the regions, COM(2025) 30 final. January 2025.