On 6 January 2021, the European Commission announced the first round of direct equity investment through the new European Union Council (EIC) Fund. Over €178 million were invested in 42 highly innovative start-ups and SMEs to support and scale up breakthrough innovations in Europe.
Established in June 2020, the EIC Fund providing equity investments, ranging from €500.000 to €15 million per beneficiary, aims to complement the grant financing, which has already been provided through the EIC Accelerator Pilot to enable companies to scale up faster.
Under the EIC Accelerator a total of 293 companies have already been selected for funding worth over €563 million in grants since December 2019. Among those, 159 companies have been selected to additionally receive the new equity investments from the EIC Fund.
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