EIC Accelerator - 2024 Overview Open & Challenges

Written by Demmis Necula | January 15, 2024

The EIC Accelerator supports companies (principally SMEs, including start-ups, but also small mid-caps with up to 500 employees) to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones.

The total budget for the EIC Accelerator in 2024 is €675 million, with €375 million allocated for the Open Call, €300 million for the six Challenge calls. The budget is further split for the grant component (40% of the allocated budget) and equity investment component (60% of the allocated budget):

EIC Accelerator Open: €150 million is reserved for the grant component, €225 million for the equity component,
EIC Accelerator Challenges: €120 million for the grant component, €180 million for the equity component,
An additional €180 million is available as a “reserve amount for follow-on investments”, a provision mainly for previously selected grant-first beneficiaries and available in the form of an equity component.

The grant first is no longer part of the funding types. The three available funding types in 2024 are: Grant only, Blended finance & Equity only.

The funding rate for the grant component remains at 70%. The grant funding per project can go up to €2.5 million, while equity investments per company are between €0.5 million to €15 million.

The submission of the short application remains open at any time.

The cut-off dates for full applications in 2024 are:

March 13th 2024
October 3rd 2024

Reach out to us for more insights. At Winnovart, we can support you with grant-funding advisory, access to private investors, as well as direct investments.