Have you heard of the EIT Digital Challenge yet? High-growth European deeptech scaleups can win prizes totalling €250K in cash and in kind, as well as tailor-made growth support from experts in 10 European countries, international visibility and access to the EIT Digital network.
Applications are still open, with the deadline to apply being on 10 May, 2021. For the 2021 edition, EIT Digital is looking for deeptech scaleups with a differentiating product offering, leveraging sophisticated technology that is often protected or hard to reproduce. This year, teams are encouraged to apply to one of five thematic areas: Digital Tech, Digital Cities, Digital Industry, Digital Wellbeing and Digital Finance.
EIT Digital success stories
Since its launch in 2014, the EIT Digital Challenge has attracted more than 2,500 entries from all over Europe, and being awarded by the EIT Digital Challenge represents a significant milestone for scaleups on the verge to grow and expand internationally.
Winners and participants of the competition can look forward to getting international visibility, sales opportunities, connection with potential investors, and insights from business developers and fundraising experts operating from multiple cities across Europe. These benefits lead to great success stories, with alumni consistently achieving their goals.
For instance, Medicus.AI (Austria) who was a winner 2018, was recently selected as founding partner of Espace numérique de santé (ENS) France’s digital health platform. In addition, KONUX (Germany), who was the winner of the 2014 edition, recently raised over €66 million and finalised a partnership with Deutsche Bahn. Furthermore, SidekickHealth (Iceland), who won the competition in 2019, successfully raised a Series A round of €17 million with the support of EIT Digital Accelerator’s venture capital experts.
With all this in mind, we turned to some more previous winners to hear a bit more about their experience of EIT Digital. Here’s what they said:
Deepomatic (France)
“Winning the EIT Digital Challenge was a huge recognition for the work of our team and being named by EIT Digital as best deep tech startup in Europe was really meaningful at this point in time – the beginning of our scaleup stage. We are now concentrated on market access and to help all field engineers work in a more qualitative and efficient way. In this respect, I believe we can get help [from EIT Digital] for our product marketing, but also our prospection efforts in the telecom, energy and utilities industries.” – Augustin Marty, CEO & Co-Founder of Deepomatic.
SwipeGuide (Netherlands)
“With our solution, we want to tap into the more than 200,000 factories in Europe, starting with Germany and the UK. From our collaboration with EIT Digital, we expect better access to market, help with identifying the right targets, to kick in doors and expand our business to local markets. And winning this award has also helped our decision to actively start raising funds – with the support of EIT Digital. We also hope that joining EIT Digital will be an opportunity to give back to this ecosystem and help close the gap between universities and companies.” – Founder & CEO Willemijn Schneyder.
Wishibam (France)
“I think we will benefit a lot from the accelerator’s network to reach customers in parts of Europe where we haven’t yet had a chance to show our potential. The accelerator will also help us meet investors from diverse backgrounds and give us a better appreciation of the different fundraising options that exist across the continent. Overall I expect the Accelerator to expand our horizons, put us out of our comfort zone, and make Wishibam mature as a scaleup. I am just very excited for this opportunity.”
Sidekick (Sweden)
“The EIT Digital Accelerator team delivered critical support during this process and was key in the successful closing of our fundraising: in addition to providing invaluable feedback and advise, their systematic management of the process and coordinated efforts allowed us to meet with all the right investors from across Europe in a very short period of time” – CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Tryggvi Thorgeirsson.
Meet the EIT Digital Accelerator
The EIT Digital Accelerator provides tailor-made growth support for fast-growing European digital deeptech scaleups by helping them raise capital, find customers and scale up internationally, thanks to a distributed team of business developers and fundraising experts operating from 10 European countries. Since 2012, the EIT Digital Accelerator has supported startups and scaleups from 18 countries who have raised over €1 billion in investment. The EIT Digital Accelerator has been recognized as a world’s top public Business Accelerator by UBI Global, and as one of the top 3 accelerator brands in Europe, according to Startup Heatmap Europe 2021.
How can you apply?
For further information on selection criteria, and to apply, please visit www.eitdigital.eu/challenge. The deadline for applications is 10 May 2021 – Good luck!
Editor’s Note: This post has been created in collaboration and with financial support from EIT Digital. If you’re also interested in partnering with us, just reach out.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com/ by contact@bcurdy.com, Khareem Sudlow
