Eight European startups set to receive funding under EIC STEP Scale Up call

On 27 April 2027, the European Commission announced a new group of eight companies to receive €10 and €30 million investments per company, to support them in the crucial scale-up phase to establish a market position. The investments are part of the EIC Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up call. The EIC STEP Scale Up scheme aims 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.   

Out of 44 companies that submitted their proposal, 28 were invited to interview with independent high-level experts. Eight of those met all the eligibility and evaluation criteria and are now put forward for investment decisions by the EIC Fund, subject to due diligence. If negotiations are successful, the companies may receive a combined €146.5 million of equity investments (between €10 and €30 million per company). 

The selected companies cover a wide range of strategic technologies for Europe:  

• Aignostics (Germany) – transforming drug development and improving patient outcomes with AI 
• Alice & Bob (France) – building the first universal quantum computer
• Endurosat (Bulgaria) – making access to space intelligence universal
• Greenland Resources (Denmark (Greenland)) - world class Climax-type molybdenum mineral deposit with by-product magnesium
• Luabio (Denmark) – rebuilding chemical industry by combining AI-designed biocatalysts with waste CO2 as feedstock
• Payload Aerospace (Spain) - global space transportation service provider to support cargo and human spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars
• Quantware (The Netherlands) - the 3D architecture that leads to faster and exponentially more powerful scaling of quantum computing
• Reverion (Germany) - the next-generation power plant that makes biogas and renewable energy truly efficient 

These eight companies, together with additional 18 companies that were also considered excellent but not selected in this round due to the limitations of the available STEP budget, will all receive the STEP Seal. The Seal aims to facilitate access to complementary or alternative funding as well as to EIC Business Acceleration Services.   

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