2022 was a milestone year for the EIC Fund, with the announcements of its first 71 investment decisions.
Throughout the year, the EIC Fund continued with its patient capital mission, providing equity investments of up to €15 million and sharing the risk with the other investors supporting Europe’s innovative EIC Accelerator companies.
Thanks to EIC Fund’s co-investment support, many companies selected to receive equity investments under Horizon 2020 managed to close funding rounds with its backing last year. From developing Security Drones and AI diagnosis to Automated rechargers, meet some of the 6 EIC-funded startups that closed successful rounds in 2022.
February: Automating EV Recharge
Italian innovators DazeTechnology created the first totally autonomous conductive charging system for Electric Vehicles (EV), Dazeplug. In February 2022, the company closed a Seed investment round with the participation of the EIC Fund.
The company also took part in two events organized under the EIC Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme: the EIC ePitching event on Space and Transport on 27 April 2022 and the Scaling Up with the EIC event on Sustainability and Technology 14 June 2022, in Paris.
June: Next-Generation Drones
Israeli innovators Indoor Robotics closed an impressive USD 15 million series A funding round with the participation of the EIC Fund.
Founded in 2018, the company is commercializing a ground-breaking indoor security drone. Its product, Tando, stands out from currently available solutions by not being held back by ordinary items such as chairs or steps, using its multiple sensors and proprietary algorithms to map and navigate indoor spaces, collect various sorts of data and doubling up as a security camera when not in flight. Indoor Robotics is now prepared to start moving into full production and to develop a go-to-market strategy.
September: Making Clinical Assessment Simpler with AI
Kahun raised USD 8 milliion in a Seed Round, with the EIC Fund as one of the investors. This capital will allow the Israeli company to keep developing its clinical reasoning tool, which leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help healthcare providers make better choices.
Kahun’s first application is a comprehensive clinical assessment chatbot, which follows the logic used by trained physicians to ask all the right questions, rule out diagnoses and help healthcare providers reach the right findings. Kahun’s algorithmic engine bases its feedback on a map of over 30 million evidence-based medical insights and provides references and links to these sources. The new funds will help the company continue to update and improve this map of evidence-based medical knowledge.
November: Circular Economy for the Photovoltaic Industry
ROSI SAS is a pioneer in the photovoltaic industry, having established a recycling line to recover high-purity silicon, silver and copper and reintegrate them into advanced industrial uses. This year, they managed to obtain EUR 7.4 million in a round that included the participation of the EIC Fund, as well the ITOCHU Corporation group and InnoEnergy.
The company is taking this capital, along with the subsidies obtained through the France Relance programme and a loan from BPI France, to set up its first industrial line.
ROSI SAS was also one of the companies featured in the ‘Scaling Up with the EIC’ event on Sustainability and Technology, hosted in Paris, on 14 June 2022.
More about the EIC Fund
The EIC Fund was established in 2020, in Luxembourg, with an initial capital of about EUR 3.5 billion for the period 2021-2027.
It invests up to €15 million in equity in start-ups and SMEs with market-creating innovations and high scale-up potential. These companies are chosen for investment under the EIC Accelerator, through a highly competitive process from which only the top 2% are selected. All investments are subject to thorough due diligence and receive continued business acceleration support and introductions.
Source: European Innovation Council I News (https://bit.ly/3HpcXiV)