Insights

A Finnish learning application utilizing 3D technologies is targeting international markets with a successful investment round worth 1.5 M€ and new members in the Board of Directors. As of April 1, 2021, the Chair of the Board Jussi Kajala is the new CEO of 3DBear, whilst Laura Koponen, CEO of the innovation consulting company Spinverse, was appointed the new Chair of the Board. The two new members in the Board of Directors, Fredrik Lucander (VP, Marketing) of home delivery app Wolt and Raghunath Koduvayur (Head of Marketing and Communications) of IQM Quantum Computers, building quantum computers, bring in their strong marketing expertise to accelerate the future growth.

This information has been updated based on the EIC Fund Investment Guidelines v. 3.0 published 22.04.2021. A copy of the document can be browsed here under for more information.

Fortum and Metsä Group launched ExpandFibre, a 4-year R&D collaboration, in summer 2020. It is a major effort towards developing high-volume bioproducts that have a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to currently available fossil-based products. To succeed in the ambitious mission, the founding companies have joined forces with a large and continuously growing group of innovation partners – the ExpandFibre Ecosystem. Spinverse has supported the ecosystem in setting up the ExpandFibre activities and is working with Fortum and Metsä Group to accelerate impactful collaboration.

The revamped European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator is the flagship funding instrument under Horizon Europe for start-ups and SMEs with radically new ideas for rolling out marketable innovation solutions and breakthrough projects. Winning companies with ambitions to grow and scale up can receive up to 15 M€ in equity investments and 2.5 M€ in grants. Here are our tips to get ready for your application process in the application portal!

The European Defence Fund (EDF) was officially launched in 2017 by the European Commission. Its objective is to strengthen the EU’s strategic autonomy and boost Europe’s defence capabilities. From 2021 onwards the EDF, worth more than 7.9 B€, will foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base, offering growth opportunities for companies operating in the sector.

When funding calls open and the consortium gears kick into action, there is a lot of excitement mixed with uncertainty and risk. Consortiums do not come fully formed, and risk is not just isolated to new technologies or organisational challenges. It is a combination of both and also includes other factors, such as regulation, ability of organisations to collaborate, global phenomenon, ships getting stuck in major trade arteries and so on.  Spinverse's Patrick Halford, VP, Digital Industries discusses on how to manage consortium risk and how Spinverse can help. 

Innpaper project is developing sustainable and innovative alternatives to electronic waste with three use cases for real industry needs in food, security, and medical sectors. The four-year joint research project has now progressed to its final year. In line with the project’s target, the 15 consortium partners have now developed an electronics platform using paper as a base material to offer a recyclable replacement to e-waste. Innpaper recently completed the evaluation for the open call for new ideas and have now shortlisted Amphilab and Tapp Online as final candidates. Spinverse experts are working with the consortium to boost the development towards commercial applications.

Sometimes companies who have first succeeded in securing public funding for their own R&D&I project may find themselves being further funded as a part of a large European consortium tackling global challenges. This is where Spinverse’s customer SSH Communications Security succeeded. We talked to Jussi Mononen of this Finnish cybersecurity company on the differences and benefits of applying funding as an individual company to being part of a large consortium. 

We are very excited to announce our headquarter's move to Keilaniemi, Espoo, where our innovative funding experts will get an inspiring and bespoke working space. The new address is valid from 1st March, 2021 onwards. We also updated our website to correspond to our new visual look.

The extensive funding expertise of Spinverse came to good use when Technology Industries of Finland, Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and Finnish Energy requested Spinverse to help them create an easy-to-read website about EU funding. Aptly named as EU Funding Playbook, the approachable and visual website aims to help companies get a good overview and practical tips to the exciting and somewhat complex world of public funding.