Insights

European Investment Bank (EIB) Venture Debt is a long-term financing instrument meant to provide significant cash runway in-between financing rounds while minimising dilution of existing owners. This funding allows a company to fully focus on its business after early commercialization and grow to secure stability. It is well suited to fast-growing companies with significant innovation potential and/or to enterprises driven by research and innovation.

Is your company on a mission to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change? To become climate neutral by 2050, Europe has to take drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To support this ambitious goal, European Commission has launched an Innovation Fund programme to fund both large-scale and small-scale projects that demonstrate low-carbon technologies. Read on to find out if your SME company or a consortium you are part of is eligible to have your fair share of the 10 B€ available through this massive funding programme over the period of 2020-2030 — the next small-scale call has just been launched! 

Is your company on a mission to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change? To become climate neutral by 2050, Europe has to take drastic measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To support this ambitious goal, European Commission has launched an Innovation Fund programme to fund both large-scale and small-scale projects that demonstrate low-carbon technologies. Read on to find out if your SME company or a consortium you are part of is eligible to have your fair share of the 10 B€ available through this massive funding programme over the period of 2020-2030 — the next small-scale call is approaching early next year!

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.

Spinverse recently helped the Norwegian start-up sensiBel in securing the 2.5 M€ grant and 4.2 M€ equity from the EIC Accelerator instrument. The funding will assist sensiBel in their goal to finalise their product development and scale up the manufacturing of their unique optical Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) microphone. With the accelerated manufacturing, sensiBel will be able to satisfy the needs for better high-performance microphone technology in voice-controlled user interfaces, high-fidelity audio recordings and sound capture markets.

The European Working Group of Innovation Consultants (EWGIC) has published a new Position Paper regarding the agreement by European Council on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Next Generation EU budget. The Position Paper, released on the 24th of July 2020 makes a plea to European Parliament's decision makers to take swift action to prevent the Horizon Europe's budget cuts that threaten to slow down the recovery of Europe from the current economic crisis.

European Working Group of Innovation Consultants (EWGIC) brings together innovation experts to exchange experience and best practice and promote professional development in EU research, development and innovation projects. Marie Latour, Pekka Koponen and Xavier Aubry are members of EWGIC and wrote an important plea to draw attention to the current situation, where COVID-19 crisis has led private investment in pre-market, high-risk start-ups dry up overnight. With no cash flow, the start-ups need support to stay afloat. The EIC Accelerator could be used to help them.

Many companies ask Spinverse for help to apply for EU funding to boost their development and growth. Not everyone who applies for funding receives it, but working with Spinverse can yield other benefits.

The European private VC market is still relatively small, so young Nordic companies increasingly turn to public funding to scale up.

Entrepreneurs at Slush have funding on their minds. The EU’s innovation programme is changing and young companies wonder how they will be affected.